The kilt, the traditional clothing of the Highlanders of Scotland, is the national pride of the country. In ancient times, this woolen piece of clothing, reminiscent of a skirt, performed an important function: the color of the ornament determined whether a person belonged to one of the most ancient clans. Now there are, of course, much more colors - so-called tartans. Among them there is also a special Russian tartan. Only it, if we follow tradition, can you and I wear.
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The Scottish kilt is made from a special fabric - tartan, woven from natural wool. In our usual understanding, a kilt looks almost no different from a pleated skirt, but in the Middle Ages its length could reach seven meters. If necessary, they could be wrapped around the entire body to protect against the cold.
The word “tartan” itself is of Celtic origin and is translated as “color of the area.” Initially, tartans (ornaments, not fabric) belonged to eleven Scottish clans inhabiting various regions of the country, and were created in strict accordance with the laws of heraldry. Therefore, by the color of the pattern it was easy to determine where the person came from.
Earliest depiction of Scottish soldiers in kilts, woodcut from 1631.
Until the 19th century, only natural dyes were used to dye tartan threads. From alder they got a black tint, from birch - yellow, heather gave the threads an orange color, blueberries - purple, blackberries - blue. Red tartan was considered a sign of wealth, since it is quite problematic to obtain red using natural dyes.
In the mid-18th century, when the British suppressed the Jacobite uprising, they banned the Scots from wearing kilts. Some obeyed the order, but the Scots, who lived high in the mountains, did not take off their kilts even on pain of death.
Painting "The Battle of Culloden". As a result of this battle, the uprising raised by the Scots to return the Stuart family to the British throne was finally suppressed.
The only people allowed to wear kilts were members of the Royal Special Regiments patrolling the Scottish mountains. They wore the Black Watch tartan, one of the most recognizable patterns, which became the first military tartan.
After the ban was lifted, it turned out that many traditional tartan colors had been forgotten. Then a large-scale campaign to revive the national heritage began. Tartans were restored from paintings and old books by tailors.
In 1822, King George IV came to Edinburgh and proclaimed: “Let everyone wear their own tartan.” At this point, the variety of tartans began to grow exponentially. Today there are more than four thousand varieties. The most popular of them:
1. Caledonia is a universal tartan that every Scot can wear.
3. Dress Campbell - ceremonial tartan of the Campbell clan.
4. Burberry - tartan worn by British army generals during the Boer War.
5. Dress Gordon - an elegant version of the Gordon clan tartan.
6. Royal Stewart is the most famous tartan in the world, belonging to the royal Stuart dynasty.
In addition to clan colors, there are many, so to speak, highly specialized tartans. Many public organizations and government agencies, including the Royal Bank of Scotland, have their own signature designs on fabrics. There are mourning tartans, hunting tartans, holiday ones...
Established in 1963, the Scottish Tartans Society assigns a unique code to all registered patterns - based on the number of threads of each color.
There is also a “Russian” tartan. It is composed of Barclay and Lermontov tartans, named respectively after the commander Michael Barclay de Tolly and the poet Mikhail Lermontov, who had Scottish roots.
This article is a short encyclopedia of bulimia from Svetlana Bronnikova. Symptoms, course, consequences of the disorder, and most importantly - specific advice on what to do to get out of all this.
Katya's story
Katya is 27 years old. Katya starts every morning with black coffee, an egg and a cucumber. No bread. She is a successful PR specialist, passionate about her work... and “You understand, we work with celebrities, it is very important to look good.” Katya easily lights up, takes on everything new with pleasure, and understands nutrition no worse than a professional nutritionist.
She professes a healthy lifestyle and proper nutrition: she drinks two liters of water a day, gets on a treadmill three times a week. At lunch, Katya also tries to eat right - steamed fish, salad, no, no, no dessert!
The hardest part begins at about 4 o'clock, when the strength is already running out, but the end of the working day is still far away. Katya decides to treat herself to a cup of coffee and candy. She doesn’t always manage to resist - sometimes, with a cup of coffee, she starts eating one candy after another and cannot stop... A day that started correctly and well is hopelessly ruined.
Then, on the way home, she stops at ABC of Taste to buy croissants, marmalade, cake or pastries and another liter package of ice cream. When Katya gets home, she eats it all and then vomits in the toilet.
Katya is 27 years old. 6 of them she has bulimia.
Sometimes attacks do not start with candy at work, but as if on their own. A hard day, an unpleasant conversation with your boss, a feeling of dissatisfaction with what you have done. Risky moments include buying clothes (just look at yourself in the fitting room mirror and discover that size 27 jeans are too small) and your mother coming to visit you from out of town. Mom’s caustic comments that Katya is still not married, doesn’t look very athletic, and that at her age, with such education and a good job, she could already take out a mortgage for an apartment, lead to despair.
Sometimes Katya gets tired from bouts of vomiting, and then she runs kilometers on the elliptical until she's stupefied, and sometimes she goes down to the pharmacy for a laxative.
Usually Katya doesn't feel like there's anything wrong with her. A good half of the girls in her circle disappear into the toilet after dinner and return with the scent of toothpaste and fresh lipstick. Everyone is on diets and constantly losing weight. This is a healthy lifestyle, isn't it? And only in the evenings, after an attack, does Katya cry because she feels fat and lonely. She feels that something is wrong with her.
Where did bulimia come from?
Bulimia is by no means a product of the new century with its cult of thinness. Attacks of overeating and induced vomiting have been known to mankind since ancient times. For example, doctors in Ancient Egypt recommended fasting and vomiting once a month for three days to maintain good health. It is widely known about the Roman emperors who introduced the fashion of inducing vomiting in order to “free up space” in the stomach to continue the feast.
It is less widely known that the anorexic medieval nuns, who exhausted themselves not in the name of Holy Thinness, but for the glory of our Lord, periodically developed bouts of overeating, attributed, of course, to the machinations of the devil, and some of them induced vomiting in order to “cleanse themselves from sins."
Does this mean that bulimia as an eating disorder has existed since ancient times? No. The most important component is missing: the need to control weight. We can only talk about full-blown bulimia when there is a goal of weight control.
Is bulimia congenital?
About 2% of the population of every developed country suffers from bulimia. To date, it has not been precisely established whether there is a genetic predisposition for the disorder. One thing is clear to scientists: there are hidden mechanisms, most likely innate, that facilitate the search and consolidation of so-called compensatory behavior - this is what is called inducing vomiting and other measures to get rid of what has been eaten as quickly as possible.
The fact is that inducing vomiting is not so simple and not at all a pleasant experience. Try it and see for yourself. Who among us did not eat something inappropriate as a child? One common recommendation is to drink a lot of water and induce vomiting. So, often this is simply impossible to do - no matter how much we want, we can’t do it. The fact that people with bulimia do this easily and naturally sets them apart from everyone else. The nature of this difference is unknown to us.
We know for sure that social factors - a general belief in the necessity and usefulness of dietary behavior, dietary restrictions, the cult of thinness - provoke the development of bulimia. In so-called primitive cultures there is no bulimia. As you know, the disorder did not exist on the Fiji Islands until the 70s, when the Americans brought television there. After this, the statistics of bulimia quickly approached global levels.
Symptoms of bulimia
In order to be diagnosed with bulimia, a combination of several symptoms is necessary.
Bouts of overeating that is, consuming huge amounts of food in a limited period of time, accompanied by a feeling of loss of control.
Compensatory behavior, that is, any behavior aimed at getting rid of what you have eaten, whether it is inducing vomiting, using laxatives and diuretics, or excessive exercise (there is a term for this “sports bulimia”). Food cannot be a reason for increased physical activity. Even if you overeat and feel like you need to work off what you ate, you have symptoms of bulimia!
Now you understand that many healthy lifestyle apologists, Instagram divas with gym selfies, and even professional fitness trainers are just bulimics.
This is the paradox of modern life. People with eating disorders teach others about healthy lifestyles and nutrition.
Binges of overeating and compensation occur at least once a week within 3 months.
Self-esteem and self-awareness, even a person’s mood depends on size and weight bodies. I weighed myself in the morning - the scale showed a plus - my mood was ruined for the whole day. They told me at work that I’ve lost weight – I’m flying like I’m on wings. If you can’t fit into your new jeans, that’s a tragedy. In an evening dress, folds are visible on the sides - I’m not going to a party.
A person who develops bulimia, and this can be both men and women, has initially certain psychological characteristics. These are emotionally mobile, impulsive people who are easily involved in new activities. It is difficult to unequivocally classify them as introverts or extroverts - they are shy, reserved and timid in communication, and at the same time they want to be the center of attention and conquer others. The result of this combination is constant self-doubt.
Consequences
Okay, so what's so scary about that? Well, I ate too much - vomited, worked out or took a laxative, is it really that dangerous?
There is an opinion among people that if anorexia is fraught with serious health consequences, then they don’t die from bulimia - “all girls do it.” In fact, bulimia can be fatal and extremely damaging to your health.
The human body is not designed to spew out what it has just eaten - the bulimic’s body begins to consistently break down from the inside. The teeth suffer because gastric juice enters the mouth along with food. Anemia and tachycardia develop—the body lacks microelements. The endocrine system suffers - bulimics often experience hormonal destabilization and disruption of the thyroid gland. Gastritis and disorders of the gastrointestinal tract are also typical.
How to treat bulimia?
The first case of bulimia was described in 1979 - then the only method used in the treatment of mental disorders was psychoanalysis - and he did not find much success in the treatment of bulimia.
Does this mean that psychoanalysis is ineffective? Of course not. The problem with eating disorders is that they affect both the emotional sphere and behavior. Stabilizing the emotional sphere may reduce the frequency of attacks, but is unlikely to help get rid of them. The fact is that bulimics all come to weight loss offices with the same request: “I’m addicted to food” - although in fact they are addicted to attacks.
An attack is a method of getting rid of negative emotions, calming down, and “rebooting.” Indeed, after such a shocking experience there is simply no resource left for emotions - emotions are turned off. Over time, the connection “attack - pleasant oblivion and relaxation” is formed, and addiction is formed.
More hope for bulimia sufferers came with the advent of CBT - cognitive behavioral therapy. CBT is based on the idea that our behavior is caused by faulty thoughts. If you change the way you think, you will change your behavior. Indeed, bulimics tend to entertain negative, critical thoughts about themselves. CBT is not always effective for bulimia, but it is still one of the evidence-based treatment methods.
Some of the best results in terms of effectiveness in the treatment of bulimia today have DBT - dialectical behavioral therapy. 80% of patients stop having attacks and remain free of them for 2 years. This is the “younger daughter” of CBT, which focuses not on wrong thoughts, but on destructive emotions that a person cannot cope with. Using carefully selected techniques, DBT teaches you to master your emotions, regulate them, understand and analyze them - and change behavior from a more stable and calm state.
It can be difficult to get treatment. Admitting that you have an eating disorder can be very embarrassing.
In fact, bulimia is the same disease as hepatitis A or thyroiditis. It is not your fault that you are sick. Bulimia rarely goes away without treatment - you need professional help.
How to help yourself?
Your enemy is not overeating, but undereating.
Every day you start with a new attempt to eat healthy. Leave these attempts for a while if you want to get rid of attacks. Eat nutritious meals at least 5 times a day until you feel comfortably full.
Remember - there should be no excluded products on your menu! Potatoes, breads and sweets, pasta and bacon should be part of your menu. Satiety and variety of tastes are what will protect you from attacks.
The art of the pause.
Do not set yourself the task of suppressing or preventing an attack. Set yourself the task of “delaying” it. Before you start eating “food for overeating,” take a time—let it be 15 minutes at first—and do something else, and after the time has passed, ask yourself whether the desire is still as strong or if it can already be dealt with. Thus, bring the pause to at least half an hour, adding a minute with each episode.
Escape from the attack.
Bulimia attacks always occur in approximately the same circumstances - most often at home, when no one is home. If you feel an attack coming on, leave the house for a long walk, go shopping, window shopping, or walk the dog.
Call a friend.
Agree with a friend that you will call him/her in case of emergency. When you feel that you are being “overwhelmed,” call and ask them to distract you with conversation for as long as possible—or better yet, come and go for a walk with you.
Bulimia is not a harmless side effect of a “healthy lifestyle” or “an easy way to get rid of what you eat.” Bulimia drags on, and now you are flushing large sums of money, health, and free time literally down the toilet. For people with “advanced” forms of bulimia, body weight and slimness cease to be of great importance - since almost the whole life is devoted to servicing attacks. Don’t let it get to this point - seek help on time.
Treatment plan
At IntuEat Intuitive Eating Center, we offer the following treatment plan for people suffering from bulimia:
- Individual nutrition counseling: structuring meals and avoiding diets with the help of program “Down with diet!” — “Traffic rules” .
- Group therapy - training emotional regulation using the DBT method, seizure control training.
- Group Conscious or Intuitive nutrition is a way to bring back the pleasure of food to life and gain self-confidence.
Tell us about the teachers.
In mathematics, Russian, and English, these are experienced school teachers. These are people who have extensive school experience, but have not become “school teachers.” In other subjects - institute teachers and researchers: a professional writer, a professional geologist... Now, 22 years after the creation of the school, we can say that we have an excellent team of teachers - masters of their craft, who know how to work with children and love this work (and children...).
No homework?!
No. Because the student spends 8 hours at school—more precisely, he works at school for 8 hours. Is it good for an adult to “carry work” home? Any trainer will tell you: your muscles should relax between workouts. It's the same at school. Every day, a student works independently for 2 hours: 1 hour in the library, 1 hour in the computer lab. And at home you need to rest.
It’s clear that the school is “different,” but what about the state program?
Of course, in full. At the end of grades 9 and 11, students take final exams and receive a certificate - the same as in a public school. As a rule, the program coincides “year after year” - of course, there are discrepancies in details, but when moving to a mass school, no problems arise. On the contrary, it often turns out that we set assessments more strictly than “strict schools.”
What are Special Courses?
These are elective courses. For example, an 8th grade student on Tuesdays during lessons 5-6 can sign up and attend one of 4 special courses:
English – simultaneous translation of English films.
Literary club - they write prose and poetry, the best is published in the magazine “Gardens of the Lyceum”.
Mathematics - solving Olympiad problems.
Programming.
Why is this necessary? Isn't it easier to schedule regular lessons? Simpler, but more useless. A person does well what he is interested in doing. Especially a teenager.
Therefore, in a special course, a student puts in more effort than in a regular lesson. In high school there are 4 special courses per week.
What about the studios?
Also optional items. But if special courses are intellectual pursuits, then studios are arts and crafts. An art workshop, a pottery workshop, a theater studio, music, embroidery, a puppet workshop, car making... Of course, this is not a music or art school - but this is a great opportunity to try yourself in everything: both on stage and at the pottery wheel. 1-2 hours a day.
Physical training?
Every day. This is not a luxury, but a condition of survival.
What kind of children is your school for?
For different ones. Because we have an almost individual program for everyone - and this is not an advertising phrase! Strong students can engage in serious creative work in special courses, and take tasks of level 1 difficulty in independent work lessons. Students who have problems in any subjects are given simpler assignments, and instead of special courses, additional classes in mathematics and the Russian language are organized for them.
One student’s schedule may include 8 hours of English (including special courses) - and this will be the program of an English special school. Another one studies mathematics in depth - he studies mathematics 9 hours a week. The third loves history - he reads encyclopedias and serious books, writes reports, teaches history lessons (sometimes) for the first grade...
In fact, such schools - with a choice of subjects, with a variety of creative work - are called "schools for gifted children" all over the world. We are also trying to work with “ordinary children.” And on the whole it works.
Entrance exams?
Two ways to get to us:
the first is testing in Russian and mathematics and an interview with parents;
the second is a trial week during the academic year, which replaces both the interview and testing...
Answered questions
Kurbatov R.I.
Illustration number adyn. Paul Volcker looks at you like you're shit
Continuation. First episode -
Well, here’s the second episode about what’s happening there with inflation and interest rates on government bonds
I’ll say right away that the narrative will be non-academic, but since I understand it.
I will mercilessly ban anyone who writes uncomplimentary comments to me. Just kidding, just kidding.
Everyone knows that I don’t ban anyone, and I don’t advise you to either.
So, let's start with the meeting on Jekyll Island in 1913.
By this year, American bankers were finally fed up with the constant raids on banks by depositors (banking panics), which in a fractional reserve system inevitably lead to bank failure. See the classic film "Its a wonderful life"
Bankers gathered on this island near the state of Georgia and decided to create a lender of last resort, that is, a central bank.
In Russian literature this institution is called the Fed, Federal Reserve System, etc. These are all attempts to fool the brain with a beautiful term. The Fed is a central bank, so it’s simpler and clearer.
Initially, the central bank did exactly this - that is, it solved the stability problems of individual banks, which were inevitable with their partial reserve business model.
Then the Great Depression hit. Unemployment, everything. Hungry crowds are roaming the country and are ready to work for food. Luckily for the Americans, World War II broke out overseas and orders for tanks and stew began to arrive, which helped the industry get out of the crisis.
But the residue remained. Especially the sky-high unemployment. There was no particular inflation during the Great Depression. There was even deflation sometimes. But regarding unemployment, such a collective consensus has formed that it is better not to repeat this, because truly.
Then, as I already said, the Second World War began, military orders, everything. Post-war recovery, global economic growth, US economic hegemony, all that stuff. Somewhere before the 70s, everything was chick-flick.
But then systemic problems began to accumulate again.
There are many different reasons given for this. Either the vodka had become bad, or space had some influence, but in the 70s non-illusory inflation began in the States, for which the country was, to put it mildly, unprepared. It was the Germans in the 30s who got used to inflation of hundreds of percent per month, but for the Americans it was an unpleasant and unexpected surprise.
Of course, later economists explained everything to everyone, like the state shouldn’t spend more than it earns, that is, receives taxes, but who thought about it then. At that time there was no modern economic theory as such, and everyone thought that the state gets richer when it has a simple product, and further according to Pushkin.
In short, America was pulled out of all this bullshit by a simple Russian dude named Paul Volcker.
Who said (translating into Russian) - We will raise rates, that is, the cost of money in the economy, until we break the back of inflation, and nothing.
And he did break the back of inflation, and at the same time broke the back of the economy, which fell into the deepest depression, but as they say, you can’t cook eggs without breaking eggs.
It is for this (for solving the problem of inflation, and not for depression) that old Volcker is idolized in narrow circles in much the same way as cowboy Reagan. Reagan broke the back of the Soviet Union, and Volcker broke the back of inflation. Reagan, by the way, was a really cool guy, but I digress.
If anything, by the way, I forgot to say - the central bank of the United States is truly independent of the government. Which is not bad.
Because when it breaks the back of inflation, it usually leads to a recession, which the government may not like. But the central bank doesn’t care.
How did these upheavals end?
Ended with the American public realizing that (a) unemployment is bad and (b) inflation is also bad.
The result was the adoption of the modern version of the law on the central bank in 1977, where the so-called dual mandate was finally enshrined - maintaining maximum employment and ensuring minimum inflation. Which, in principle, are contradictory goals. Because when employment increases, inflation increases.
We'll talk about why this happens in the next part of our economic educational program.
By the way, one of the main questions that economists ask themselves nowadays is where is inflation, bleat? Why is the economy growing, employment in the states is almost full, unemployment is at a minimum, but there is no inflation?? What the hell is bullshit, Nobel Prize laureates ask.
I have an opinion on this topic, which I will express in the third and final part of this thriller.
Plus, if you understood at least something in this part and if you want to see the next one, catharsis so to speak.
By the way, there is an idea to rebrand my blog and rename it from “Andrey L (division by zero)” to “Guru Khrenov”. What do you think? I've already changed my name just in case. How is it? Or return it back?
In the “3600 seconds” program on Mediametrics.ru radio, Vladimir Evladov, creator of the Luxxy.com service, talks about important news from the service and how the first and only luxury goods marketplace in Russia works.
Read all the most important things from the interview in our material.
What is a marketplace, and what is it used for?
— How does the service work from the users’ point of view?
— The Luxxy.com website works as a marketplace, where a private seller posts advertisements for the sale of his own items, and a private buyer, by visiting the website, selects goods and completes the transaction.
— Is this something like Avito?
— We can say that this is Avito for the rich, since the site presents luxury goods.
Today there are 15,600 active products on the portal
— How long has the service existed?
— The official opening of Luxxy took place on December 1, 2016. We recently turned one year old.
Today there are 15,600 active products on the portal. About a thousand new products are added every week, and every week we break our records both in terms of sales and in terms of assortment. Even on New Year's holidays, people visited the site and displayed products.
On average, each buyer makes 2 purchases on Luxxy, and each seller makes 3 sales. At the same time, having understood the specifics of the site’s operation, sellers begin to increase the quantity of goods on display, and buyers begin to actively buy. So far, our record holder is a girl who has already made 49 purchases on Luxxy.
— What was the largest purchase made on the site?
— Today this is a Rolex watch worth 1 million 200 thousand rubles. And if we talk about the most expensive product displayed on the site, this is a Hermes Birkin bag from a limited collection made of ostrich leather worth 2 million 700 thousand rubles.
— Would it cost even more in a boutique?
- Of course. But this includes more than just savings. On our website you can find products that are very difficult to buy in boutiques. For example, Hermès maintains a selective sales methodology, and their famous Birkin cannot be purchased simply by walking into the boutique off the street.
So if a person knows what exactly he is looking for, if he understands the brand, then on Luxxy he can find real nuggets.
So, recently two Louis Vuitton bags were purchased from us by an authentication expert for this brand. She had been looking for one of them for several years. It must be said that both bags cost 15 thousand rubles each, although the same bags in an official boutique would cost more than 80 thousand rubles.
We guarantee the safety of transactions concluded on the site
— Avito simply works as a service servicing private transactions. How does your functionality differ from them?
— We take great responsibility and act as a guarantor of the security of transactions concluded on our website. Luxxy acts as an intermediary between the seller and the buyer. We guarantee the seller that he will receive money for his product (if this product is original and matches the photographs and description). We guarantee that the buyer will receive an original item that matches the descriptions, photographs, and the stated size.
We cannot guarantee that all products displayed on the site are original, however, the buyer is given 3 days after receiving the product to undergo authentication and verify the authenticity of the purchase.
We are for a market without fakes
— Do sellers often try to deceive by passing off fake goods as original?
- Not really. We warn sellers that only original products should be sold on the site. A fraudster, by contacting us, risks losing time and money.
But there are also cases when the seller himself does not know that he is selling a fake. The item could be given as a gift. Buy from a multi-brand store, where fakes are often sold.
Therefore, from March 1, a new stage in the life of our resource will begin. We were the first in Europe and Russia to sign an agreement with the company Entrupy, which created a device for authenticating branded bags. The device takes photographs magnified 200-300 times and, based on nuances often invisible to the human eye, determines the authenticity of the product.
We are the first in Russia and Europe to use a device for authenticating branded bags
For now, the device supports 15 of the most popular brands of bags, but this list will gradually grow.
From March 1, in the Moscow office of our company at the address Moscow, Teatralny Proezd, 3, building 4, it will be possible to authenticate branded bags of the following brands: Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Celine, Chanel, Chloe, Coach, Dior, Fendi, Goyard, Gucci, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Sain Laurent.
— What is the accuracy of this device? Can it compete with authentication experts?
- The accuracy is quite high - 98.5%. If you compare the work of the device with the work of an expert, then you need to take into account one point. As a rule, a good expert specializes in one brand. Let's say he knows everything about Louis Vuitton products, but if you ask him to give an opinion on, say, a Gucci bag, subjective judgments will begin.
There is room to grow
— Your service operates as a marketplace for individuals. How do you interact with consignment stores?
- As a rule, we are friends. We cooperate with many. You see, what sets us apart is our ability to scale our business. A consignment store is most often limited to retail space. We have no such restrictions. In addition, the specificity of consignment goods is that you will not find two identical goods in them. The size, color, condition of the item - something will definitely be different.
So it turns out that on Luxxy, with an assortment of 15 thousand products, the chances of finding, say, size 39 beige shoes are much greater.
— Are there any plans to enter foreign markets?
- Actually, this is my dream. Our country has been accumulating a huge amount of luxury goods for many years. Some people's collections are so large that they are forced to build entire houses for their wardrobes. People no longer wear all these things, and they need to be sold, including to foreign markets.
I think over time we will enter the Asian and European markets, but for now these are distant prospects.
So far, we provide only a small share of the market for secondary luxury goods in Russia. We have room to grow and develop.
