What nation of the New World was in 1798 rising into power, giving promise of strength and greatness, and attracting the attention of the world? The application of the symbol admits of no question. One nation, and only one, meets the specifications of this prophecy; it points unmistakably to the United States of America. Again and again the thought, almost the exact words, of the sacred writer has been unconsciously employed by the orator and the historian in describing the rise and growth of this nation. The beast was seen “coming up out of the earth;” and, according to the translators, the word here rendered “coming up” literally signifies “to grow or spring up as a plant.” And, as we have seen, the nation must arise in territory previously unoccupied. A prominent writer, describing the rise of the United States, speaks of “the mystery of her coming forth from vacancy,” and says: “Like a silent seed we grew into empire.”—G. A. Townsend, The New World Compared With the Old, page 462. A European journal in 1850 spoke of the United States as a wonderful empire, which was “emerging,” and ” amid the silence of the earth daily adding to its power and pride.”—The Dublin Nation . Edward Everett, in an oration on the Pilgrim founders of this nation, said: “Did they look for a retired spot, inoffensive for its obscurity, and safe in its remoteness, where the little church of Leyden might enjoy the freedom of conscience? Behold the mighty regions over which, in peaceful conquest, … they have borne the banners of the cross!”—Speech delivered at Plymouth, Massachusetts, Dec. 22, 1824, page 11.
“And he had two horns like a lamb.” The lamblike horns indicate youth, innocence, and gentleness, fitly representing the character of the United States when presented to the prophet as “coming up” in 1798. Among the Christian exiles who first fled to America and sought an asylum from royal oppression and priestly intolerance were many who determined to establish a government upon the broad foundation of civil and religious liberty. Their views found place in the Declaration of Independence, which sets forth the great truth that “all men are created equal” and endowed with the inalienable right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” And the Constitution guarantees to the people the right of self-government, providing that representatives elected by the popular vote shall enact and administer the laws. Freedom of religious faith was also granted, every man being permitted to worship God according to the dictates of his conscience. Republicanism and Protestantism became the fundamental principles of the nation. These principles are the secret of its power and prosperity. The oppressed and downtrodden throughout Christendom have turned to this land with interest and hope. Millions have sought its shores, and the United States has risen to a place among the most powerful nations of the earth.
But the beast with lamblike horns “spake as a dragon. And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed; … saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.” Revelation 13:11-14.
The lamblike horns and dragon voice of the symbol point to a striking contradiction between the professions and the practice of the nation thus represented. The “speaking” of the nation is the action of its legislative and judicial authorities. By such action it will give the lie to those liberal and peaceful principles which it has put forth as the foundation of its policy. The prediction that it will speak “as a dragon” and exercise “all the power of the first beast” plainly foretells a development of the spirit of intolerance and persecution that was manifested by the nations represented by the dragon and the leopardlike beast. And the statement that the beast with two horns “causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast” indicates that the authority of this nation is to be exercised in enforcing some observance which shall be an act of homage to the papacy.
Such action would be directly contrary to the principles of this government, to the genius of its free institutions, to the direct and solemn avowals of the Declaration of Independence, and to the Constitution. The founders of the nation wisely sought to guard against the employment of secular power on the part of the church, with its inevitable result—intolerance and persecution. The Constitution provides that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” and that “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.” Only in flagrant violation of these safeguards to the nation’s liberty, can any religious observance be enforced by civil authority. But the inconsistency of such action is no greater than is represented in the symbol. It is the beast with lamblike horns—in profession pure, gentle, and harmless—that speaks as a dragon.
“Saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast.” Here is clearly presented a form of government in which the legislative power rests with the people, a most striking evidence that the United States is the nation denoted in the prophecy.
But what is the “image to the beast”? and how is it to be formed? The image is made by the two-horned beast, and is an image to the beast. It is also called an image of the beast. Then to learn what the image is like and how it is to be formed we must study the characteristics of the beast itself—the papacy.
When the early church became corrupted by departing from the simplicity of the gospel and accepting heathen rites and customs, she lost the Spirit and power of God; and in order to control the consciences of the people, she sought the support of the secular power. The result was the papacy, a church that controlled the power of the state and employed it to further her own ends, especially for the punishment of “heresy.” In order for the United States to form an image of the beast, the religious power must so control the civil government that the authority of the state will also be employed by the church to accomplish her own ends.
Whenever the church has obtained secular power, she has employed it to punish dissent from her doctrines. Protestant churches that have followed in the steps of Rome by forming alliance with worldly powers have manifested a similar desire to restrict liberty of conscience. An example of this is given in the long-continued persecution of dissenters by the Church of England. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, thousands of nonconformist ministers were forced to flee from their churches, and many, both of pastors and people, were subjected to fine, imprisonment, torture, and martyrdom.
It was apostasy that led the early church to seek the aid of the civil government, and this prepared the way for the development of the papacy—the beast. Said Paul: “There” shall “come a falling away, … and that man of sin be revealed.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3. So apostasy in the church will prepare the way for the image to the beast.
The Bible declares that before the coming of the Lord there will exist a state of religious declension similar to that in the first centuries. “In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.” 1 Timothy 4:1. Satan will work “with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness.” And all that “received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,” will be left to accept “strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.” 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11. When this state of ungodliness shall be reached, the same results will follow as in the first centuries.
The wide diversity of belief in the Protestant churches is regarded by many as decisive proof that no effort to secure a forced uniformity can ever be made. But there has been for years, in churches of the Protestant faith, a strong and growing sentiment in favor of a union based upon common points of doctrine. To secure such a union, the discussion of subjects upon which all were not agreed—however important they might be from a Bible standpoint—must necessarily be waived.
Charles Beecher, in a sermon in the year 1846, declared that the ministry of “the evangelical Protestant denominations” is “not only formed all the way up under a tremendous pressure of merely human fear, but they live, and move, and breathe in a state of things radically corrupt, and appealing every hour to every baser element of their nature to hush up the truth, and bow the knee to the power of apostasy. Was not this the way things went with Rome? Are we not living her life over again? And what do we see just ahead? Another general council! A world’s convention! Evangelical alliance, and universal creed!”—Sermon on “The Bible a Sufficient Creed,” delivered at Fort Wayne, Indiana, Feb. 22, 1846. When this shall be gained, then, in the effort to secure complete uniformity, it will be only a step to the resort to force.
When the leading churches of the United States, uniting upon such points of doctrine as are held by them in common, shall influence the state to enforce their decrees and to sustain their institutions, then Protestant America will have formed an image of the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result.
The beast with two horns “causeth commands all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16, 17. The third angel’s warning is: “If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.” “The beast” mentioned in this message, whose worship is enforced by the two-horned beast, is the first, or leopardlike beast of Revelation 13—the papacy. The “image to the beast” represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas. The “mark of the beast” still remains to be defined.
After the warning against the worship of the beast and his image the prophecy declares: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” Since those who keep God’s commandments are thus placed in contrast with those that worship the beast and his image and receive his mark, it follows that the keeping of God’s law, on the one hand, and its violation, on the other, will make the distinction between the worshipers of God and the worshipers of the beast.
The special characteristic of the beast, and therefore of his image, is the breaking of God’s commandments. Says Daniel, of the little horn, the papacy: “He shall think to change times and the law.” Daniel 7:25, R.V. And Paul styled the same power the “man of sin,” who was to exalt himself above God. One prophecy is a complement of the other. Only by changing God’s law could the papacy exalt itself above God; whoever should understandingly keep the law as thus changed would be giving supreme honor to that power by which the change was made. Such an act of obedience to papal laws would be a mark of allegiance to the pope in the place of God.
The papacy has attempted to change the law of God. The second commandment, forbidding image worship, has been dropped from the law, and the fourth commandment has been so changed as to authorize the observance of the first instead of the seventh day as the Sabbath. But papists urge, as a reason for omitting the second commandment, that it is unnecessary, being included in the first, and that they are giving the law exactly as God designed it to be understood. This cannot be the change foretold by the prophet. An intentional, deliberate change is presented: “He shall think to change the times and the law.” The change in the fourth commandment exactly fulfills the prophecy. For this the only authority claimed is that of the church. Here the papal power openly sets itself above God.
While the worshipers of God will be especially distinguished by their regard for the fourth commandment,—since this is the sign of His creative power and the witness to His claim upon man’s reverence and homage,—the worshipers of the beast will be distinguished by their efforts to tear down the Creator’s memorial, to exalt the institution of Rome. It was in behalf of the Sunday that popery first asserted its arrogant claims (see Appendix); and its first resort to the power of the state was to compel the observance of Sunday as “the Lord’s day.” But the Bible points to the seventh day, and not to the first, as the Lord’s day. Said Christ: “The Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.” The fourth commandment declares: “The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord.” And by the prophet Isaiah the Lord designates it: “My holy day.” Mark 2:28; Isaiah 58:13.
The claim so often put forth that Christ changed the Sabbath is disproved by His own words. In His Sermon on the Mount He said: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven,” Matthew 5:17-19.
It is a fact generally admitted by Protestants that the Scriptures give no authority for the change of the Sabbath. This is plainly stated in publications issued by the American Tract Society and the American Sunday School Union. One of these works acknowledges “the complete silence of the New Testament so far as any explicit command for the Sabbath Sunday, the first day of the week or definite rules for its observance are concerned.”—George Elliott, The Abiding Sabbath, page 184.
Another says: “Up to the time of Christ’s death, no change had been made in the day;” and, “so far as the record shows, they the apostles did not … give any explicit command enjoining the abandonment of the seventh-day Sabbath, and its observance on the first day of the week.”—A. E. Waffle, The Lord’s Day, pages 186-188.
Roman Catholics acknowledge that the change of the Sabbath was made by their church, and declare that Protestants by observing the Sunday are recognizing her power. In the Catholic Catechism of Christian Religion, in answer to a question as to the day to be observed in obedience to the fourth commandment, this statement is made: “During the old law, Saturday was the day sanctified; but the church, instructed by Jesus Christ, and directed by the Spirit of God, has substituted Sunday for Saturday; so now we sanctify the first, not the seventh day. Sunday means, and now is, the day of the Lord.”
As the sign of the authority of the Catholic Church, papist writers cite “the very act of changing the Sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants allow of; … because by keeping Sunday, they acknowledge the church’s power to ordain feasts, and to command them under sin.”—Henry Tuberville, An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, page 58. What then is the change of the Sabbath, but the sign, or mark, of the authority of the Roman Church—”the mark of the beast”?
The Roman Church has not relinquished her claim to supremacy; and when the world and the Protestant churches accept a sabbath of her creating, while they reject the Bible Sabbath, they virtually admit this assumption. They may claim the authority of tradition and of the Fathers for the change; but in so doing they ignore the very principle which separates them from Rome—that “the Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants.” The papist can see that they are deceiving themselves, willingly closing their eyes to the facts in the case. As the movement for Sunday enforcement gains favor, he rejoices, feeling assured that it will eventually bring the whole Protestant world under the banner of Rome.
Romanists declare that “the observance of Sunday by the Protestants is an homage they pay, in spite of themselves, to the authority of the Catholic Church.”—Mgr. Segur, Plain Talk About the Protestantism of Today, page 213. The enforcement of Sundaykeeping on the part of Protestant churches is an enforcement of the worship of the papacy—of the beast. Those who, understanding the claims of the fourth commandment, choose to observe the false instead of the true Sabbath are thereby paying homage to that power by which alone it is commanded. But in the very act of enforcing a religious duty by secular power, the churches would themselves form an image to the beast; hence the enforcement of Sundaykeeping in the United States would be an enforcement of the worship of the beast and his image.
But Christians of past generations observed the Sunday, supposing that in so doing they were keeping the Bible Sabbath; and there are now true Christians in every church, not excepting the Roman Catholic communion, who honestly believe that Sunday is the Sabbath of divine appointment. God accepts their sincerity of purpose and their integrity before Him. But when Sunday observance shall be enforced by law, and the world shall be enlightened concerning the obligation of the true Sabbath, then whoever shall transgress the command of God, to obey a precept which has no higher authority than that of Rome, will thereby honor popery above God. He is paying homage to Rome and to the power which enforces the institution ordained by Rome. He is worshiping the beast and his image. As men then reject the institution which God has declared to be the sign of His authority, and honor in its stead that which Rome has chosen as the token of her supremacy, they will thereby accept the sign of allegiance to Rome—”the mark of the beast.” And it is not until the issue is thus plainly set before the people, and they are brought to choose between the commandments of God and the commandments of men, that those who continue in transgression will receive “the mark of the beast.”
The most fearful threatening ever addressed to mortals is contained in the third angel’s message. That must be a terrible sin which calls down the wrath of God unmingled with mercy. Men are not to be left in darkness concerning this important matter; the warning against this sin is to be given to the world before the visitation of God’s judgments, that all may know why they are to be inflicted, and have opportunity to escape them. Prophecy declares that the first angel would make his announcement to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people.” The warning of the third angel, which forms a part of the same threefold message, is to be no less widespread. It is represented in the prophecy as being proclaimed with a loud voice, by an angel flying in the midst of heaven; and it will command the attention of the world.
In the issue of the contest all Christendom will be divided into two great classes—those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image and receive his mark. Although church and state will unite their power to compel “all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond” (Revelation 13:16), to receive “the mark of the beast,” yet the people of God will not receive it. The prophet of Patmos beholds “them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God” and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Revelation 15:2, 3. GC 440.2 – GC 450.1

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New Food Order

Sam Kass, a former senior policy advisor for nutrition in the Obama administration, talks about transformation in the food and agriculture industries.

Dawn Reiss | Dec 05, 2022

When it comes to funding the food system, there’s a fundamental gap between how food that’s good for the planet is grown and how it’s bankrolled.

Food entrepreneur Sam Kass, the former White House chef and senior policy advisor for nutrition in the Obama administration, says that’s why he started focusing on venture capital.

“Most people in venture [capital] don’t know shit about food. So that’s a problem, right,” says Kass, the founder of TROVE, a strategy firm focusing on improving the health and sustainability of food, and a venture partner in Acre Venture Partners. “It’s a problem for how they invest.”

In the fourth episode of New Food Order, a new podcast about the business of tackling climate crisis through food and agriculture, journalist Louisa Burwood-Taylor and entrepreneur Danielle Gould discuss with Kass how the agriculture and food industry is ripe for disruption with transformative change. 

“I think folks who are pushing for better food take too much comfort in the fight. And feel like the fight in itself is somehow an accomplishment,” Kass says.

But the fight isn’t what matters.

“It’s winning that matters,” Kass says. “Sometimes you can win by fighting, but more often, you win by finding common ground and figuring out a way to take a big step forward.”

That usually happens with incremental change, through individual farms, policies and companies doing a better job to make a system collectively better, Kass says.

“We don’t have time for somebody to figure out a solution in 25 years,” Kass says.

That’s created an opportunity to transform the way the agriculture system is run, making it ripe for disruption.

“We have a chance to have a revolution,” says Kass, who also served as the executive director of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign and helped the first lady create a vegetable garden at the White House. “You have the biggest, most right-wing libertarian agricultural groups who when we were in the White House a few years ago, wouldn’t meet with us. If you said the word climate change, they would literally think you were spitting in their face and you were the devil.”

And now they are at the table with the most progressive environmental groups, discussing how to transform farming to save resources and sequester carbon, Kass says.

“I’m stunned,” Kass says. “I can’t believe it’s happening given my experience in that world.”

One way to transform farming is to establish a system of carbon credits. While there are plenty of legitimate concerns about commodifying carbon credits Kass says the bigger problem is most models don’t add enough value to the growers who are taking all of the operational risk and additional cost with minimal benefit.

“That’s the reason why they’re not working,” Kass says.

Growers need to be offered a clear value proposition to be motivated to change and reduce some of the risks. That already happened with the adoption curve and “overnight transformation” of GMOs into the food system, Kass says. 

Many of the people who are currently developing these models sit “somewhere in California or Silicon Valley,” Kass says, but don’t understand the problems farmers are dealing with. Farmers are entrepreneurs who manage and mitigate an incredible amount of risk, from storms to droughts.

The industry needs to move past the idea that “we should just keep pleading with farmers to start using these different practices and somehow it’s their fault that they haven’t done it,” Kass says.

Instead, the food and agriculture industry needs to pay farmers to shift their practices to a more sustainable, regenerative approach of growing food that also sequesters carbon.

Kass predicts farmers could eventually make 50%-100% of their profits from carbon credits, as a second crop.

“It’s potentially one of the greatest things that happens to rural America, where they now are paid to be part of a solution for the world’s biggest challenges.”

Kass predicts the next few years will be rocky that will be volatile as the industry tries to find a path forward.

“But I think we’re in the beginning of a total revolution and I’m excited about it,” Kass says.

Read about previous episodes of New Food Order: 

• New Food Order: Learning from our regenerative past
• New Food Order: Is the world better off with your business in it?
• New Food Order, a new podcast, explores the food industry’s influence on climate

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On November 13, 2022, in Sharm-el-Sheikh, which some believe to be the location of Mount Sinai, something unimaginable but prophetic occurred. A new religion was proclaimed from Mount Sinai as part of the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, as representatives from all the world’s faith communities came together to work toward a single, universal goal.

There must be a common concern that unites us all. There must be one issue that the world religions must focus on above all others. There must be a single universal creed that the entire religious spectrum can fervently affirm. Yes, there is a new religion that has emerged, and it is based on the hysteria surrounding climate change.

What comes next sounds unbelievable. But it is true! As part of this year’s climate conference, COP27, a prophetic call for climate justice has been issued, a new religious creed has been established, a new set of 10 Commandments has been declared, and a new “climate change” religion has officially been born.

The Interfaith Center for Sustainable Development and the World Council of Churches are international religious organizations that are currently mobilizing the churches to take action. They are creating a world-wide mission that supersedes all other missions. They are calling on churches to unite with political groups and governments to push for a universal eco-religion. COP27 is tapping into the power that the churches wield.

The new “climate change” religion is seeking to connect religion and ecology. What makes this so enormously dangerous is that millions of Christians are being turned away from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many believers have abandoned God’s truth completely. Their new fight is not against sin but against fossil fuels. They have also embraced the new morality of “ecocide.”

The new eco-preachers are teaching their congregations that climate change is the new gospel truth. Ecology has taken the place .

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EarthSky Voices

December 2, 2022

The moment of global darkness – for the largest percentage of Earth’s human population – falls at 19:56 UTC on Tuesday, December 6, 2022. Surprised? Consider that China and India are Earth’s 2 most heavily populated nations. And both will be in darkness at that time. Meanwhile, the Americas, New Zealand, and most of Australia will be bathed in sunlight. Now consider that North and South America combined only make up about 13% of the global population. Image via Timeanddate.com.

Konstantin Bikos and Graham Jones originally published this article at Timeanddate.com on December 1, 2022. Reprinted here with permission. Edits by EarthSky.

A moment of global darkness

For just a moment on December 6, nearly 9 in 10 people worldwide will simultaneously experience nighttime.

A few months ago, our number crunchers fact-checked (and partially confirmed) an internet claim that 99% of the world’s population gets sunlight at 11:15 UTC on July 8. This left us wondering: What about the opposite situation? At what precise instant do most people experience nighttime?

Like last time, we fed our computers with timeanddate’s sun data for 2022 and population data from the Center for International Earth Science Information Network at Columbia University. We then calculated population data for the day, the night, and the three twilight phases for every minute of every day of the year.

Here’s what we found out.

Available now! 2023 EarthSky lunar calendar. A unique and beautiful poster-sized calendar showing phases of the moon every night of the year. Makes a great gift!

December 6: Most people in nighttime

According to our calculations, the moment of maximum darkness happens at 19:56 UTC on Tuesday, December 6, 2022. At that instant, the sky will be completely dark for about 85.92% of the world’s population. At that moment, night reigns across the three most populous continents: Asia, Africa, and Europe (with very minor exceptions).

How can it be nighttime for almost everyone?

Just like at any other moment, the sun will illuminate one half of the globe at 19:56 UTC on December 6. The other half will be dark, and people living there will experience nighttime.

The reason why so many people will be in darkness is that the world’s most populated areas will be on the night side of Earth at that moment. That includes nearly all of Asia, which is home to about 60% of all humans.

Meanwhile, the Americas, New Zealand, and most of Australia will be bathed in sunlight. However, while being huge landmasses, relatively few people live there. North and South America combined only make up about 13% of our worldwide population.

Two twilit runners-up

While it’s nighttime for most people on December 6, there is also a case to be made for both December 21 and December 27 as alternative moments of maximum darkness.

You see, our computers spit out December 6 as the result only when we ask them to adhere to the strictest definition of nighttime. This definition says the sun must be at least 18 degrees below the horizon.

If the angle is less than 18 degrees, it’s twilight. That’s the time in the morning and in the evening when indirect sunlight brightens the sky to some degree.

December 27: Feels like night for most people

The thing is, the darkest of the three twilight phases, astronomical twilight, is hardly discernible from the night. The sun is between 12 and 18 degrees below the horizon during that twilight phase. And the sky is so dark that it feels like nighttime.

When we allowed our algorithms to include astronomical twilight, they calculated 19:39 UTC on Tuesday, December 27, 2022, as the moment of peak darkness.

According to our numbers, 86.11% of the world’s population experiences either nighttime (85.23%) or astronomical twilight (0.88%) at that instant.

That’s roughly 15 million more people compared to the number we calculated for December 6. Still, it hardly moves the needle on a global scale: The difference accounts for a mere 0.19% of the world’s population.

December 21: Most people without direct sunlight

The second alternative instant of peak darkness takes into account all twilight phases, including nautical and civil twilight. During those two phases, the sky is noticeably brighter. However, there’s still no direct sunlight.

Applying this loose definition of darkness, we arrived at 21:44 UTC on Wednesday, December 21, 2022, as the moment when most of us are not in the daytime.

We calculated that this affects 88.14% of the world’s population. Nearly 9 out of 10 people on Earth!When taking into account not just nighttime but all phases of twilight, 21:44 UTC on December 21, 2022, puts 88.14% of the world’s population in darkness. Note also the moon is near new phase and won’t add much light to the night. Image via timeanddate.com.

What’s so special about those dates?

We weren’t particularly surprised that all the dates fall in the northern winter. Most people reside north of the equator, and December is the month when the least amount of sunlight reaches the Northern Hemisphere.

But why does the number of people in darkness (or quasi-darkness) peak on those dates? Why does nighttime affect more people on December 6 than on, say, December 5?

It all depends on how well the shape of the region affected by nighttime and twilight overlaps with the world’s most populated regions. That shape changes very slightly from one day to another as the sun moves southward before the December solstice and northward again after the solstice.

On the dates we found, it simply matches the contours of the world’s population centers slightly better than on the day before or after.

But again, the difference is very, very small. Case in point: According to our calculations, the number of people experiencing night at 19:56 UTC on December 6 is 6,665,450,571; precisely 24 hours earlier, it’s 6,665,326,866. That’s a difference of 123,705 people, a tiny margin on a global scale.

Finding the precise minute

As for the time of day when most people experience darkness, it’s basically when Asia, Africa and Europe are on the night side of Earth.

During that time of the year, that happens every day at 19-something UTC. That’s when night has just fallen in Europe. It’s also when the first sun rays of the new day have not yet reached the far east of Asia.

That said, you probably noticed that the time we calculated for December 21 (21:44 UTC) falls out of line. That’s because the inclusion of nautical and civil twilight makes for a larger geographical area. An area that now stretches all the way from Japan in the east to some of North America’s most populous metropolitan areas, such as New York and Montreal, in the west.

As you can see in the screenshots of our Day and Night Map, it is only when including the two brightest twilight phases that any significant portion of North America’s population joins the “dark side.”

Wherever you are, enjoy the dark skies!

If this sounds too gloomy and can’t wait for days to get longer again, let us sweeten the deal. Look at how much dark skies have to offer during that time of the year.

If the weather plays along, wrap up warm and go outside to enjoy the spectacular Geminids meteor shower. At its peak on December 14-15, we expect about 150 shooting stars per hour.

A few days later, on December 22-23, the Ursids meteor shower peaks, bringing us about ten meteors per hour.

And while waiting for the shooting stars to flit across the sky, you can use our Night Sky Map to spot planets and stars. Also, find more stargazing events in EarthSky’s Night Sky Guide.

Take it with a grain of salt

While we’re confident in our calculations and data sets, determining how many people experience nighttime at any one moment is a rather messy business.

For one, the world’s population isn’t static. It changes over time, and in some locations, it does so at a different pace than in others. We based our calculations on the latest reliable population data we could find, but they are from 2020.

What’s more, the margins are minuscule. While our algorithms identified a specific instant when most people experience night, they also gave us plenty of other dates and times during the Northern Hemisphere winter with a nighttime population that is just a tiny fraction smaller. We’re talking a few tens of thousands of people. Peanuts compared to the world’s population.

Bottom line: On December 6, the largest percentage of the human population sees a moment of global darkness.

Members of the EarthSky community – including scientists, as well as science and nature writers from across the globe – weigh in on what’s important to them.

November 25, 2022

NASA Predicted Asteroid Impact In Ontario, Canada

In 1833, two years after Miller began to present in public the evidences of Christ’s soon coming, the last of the signs appeared which were promised by the Saviour as tokens of His second advent. Said Jesus: “The stars shall fall from heaven.” Matthew 24:29. And John in the Revelation declared, as he beheld in vision the scenes that should herald the day of God: “The stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind.” Revelation 6:13. This prophecy received a striking and impressive fulfillment in the great meteoric shower of November 13, 1833. That was the most extensive and wonderful display of falling stars which has ever been recorded; “the whole firmament, over all the United States, being then, for hours, in fiery commotion! No celestial phenomenon has ever occurred in this country, since its first settlement, which was viewed with such intense admiration by one class in the community, or with so much dread and alarm by another.” “Its sublimity and awful beauty still linger in many minds…. Never did rain fall much thicker than the meteors fell toward the earth; east, west, north, and south, it was the same. In a word, the whole heavens seemed in motion…. The display, as described in Professor Silliman’s Journal, was seen all over North America…. From two o’clock until broad daylight, the sky being perfectly serene and cloudless, an incessant play of dazzlingly brilliant luminosities was kept up in the whole heavens.”—R. M. Devens, American Progress; or, The Great Events of the Greatest Century, ch. 28, pars. 1-5.
“No language, indeed, can come up to the splendor of that magnificent display; … no one who did not witness it can form an adequate conception of its glory. It seemed as if the whole starry heavens had congregated at one point near the zenith, and were simultaneously shooting forth, with the velocity of lightning, to every part of the horizon; and yet they were not exhausted—thousands swiftly followed in the tracks of thousands, as if created for the occasion.”—F. Reed, in the Christian Advocate and Journal, Dec. 13, 1833. “A more correct picture of a fig tree casting its figs when blown by a mighty wind, it was not possible to behold.”—”The Old Countryman,” in Portland Evening Advertiser, November 26, 1833.
In the New York Journal of Commerce of November 14, 1833, appeared a long article regarding this wonderful phenomenon, containing this statement: “No philosopher or scholar has told or recorded an event, I suppose, like that of yesterday morning. A prophet eighteen hundred years ago foretold it exactly, if we will be at the trouble of understanding stars falling to mean falling stars, … in the only sense in which it is possible to be literally true.”
Thus was displayed the last of those signs of His coming, concerning which Jesus bade His disciples: “When ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” Matthew 24:33. After these signs, John beheld, as the great event next impending, the heavens departing as a scroll, while the earth quaked, mountains and islands removed out of their places, and the wicked in terror sought to flee from the presence of the Son of man. Revelation 6:12-17.
Many who witnessed the falling of the stars, looked upon it as a herald of the coming judgment, “an awful type, a sure forerunner, a merciful sign, of that great and dreadful day.”—”The Old Countryman,” in Portland Evening Advertiser, November 26, 1833. Thus the attention of the people was directed to the fulfillment of prophecy, and many were led to give heed to the warning of the second advent.
In the year 1840 another remarkable fulfillment of prophecy excited widespread interest. Two years before, Josiah Litch, one of the leading ministers preaching the second advent, published an exposition of Revelation 9, predicting the fall of the Ottoman Empire. According to his calculations, this power was to be overthrown “in A.D. 1840, sometime in the month of August;” and only a few days previous to its accomplishment he wrote: “Allowing the first period, 150 years, to have been exactly fulfilled before Deacozes ascended the throne by permission of the Turks, and that the 391 years, fifteen days, commenced at the close of the first period, it will end on the 11th of August, 1840, when the Ottoman power in Constantinople may be expected to be broken. And this, I believe, will be found to be the case.”—Josiah Litch, in Signs of the Times, and Expositor of Prophecy, August 1, 1840.
At the very time specified, Turkey, through her ambassadors, accepted the protection of the allied powers of Europe, and thus placed herself under the control of Christian nations. The event exactly fulfilled the prediction. (See Appendix.) When it became known, multitudes were convinced of the correctness of the principles of prophetic interpretation adopted by Miller and his associates, and a wonderful impetus was given to the advent movement. Men of learning and position united with Miller, both in preaching and in publishing his views, and from 1840 to 1844 the work rapidly extended. GC 333.1 – GC 335.1

Our Nation Has Been Infiltrated. Tyranny From The East Is Coming To U.S. Aggressive Evangelism Now!

The advent of the United States in the Orient will not tend to amity, but rather to animosity. This was cleverly stated by Lord Salisbury, when at the last lord mayor’s banquet, he said the “appearance of the United States as a factor in Asiatic affairs is likely to conduce to the interests of Great Britain, but might not conduce to the interests of peace.” It can not possibly conduce to the interests of peace, for the very reason that in entering the Orient this nation has deserted her policy of peace, and has adopted in principle, at least, the bellicose spirit; she has now departed from that doctrine of the “father of his country,” which, if it never brought to her military glory, most certainly has been the cause of her material greatness. The words in the “Farewell Address” are a pearl of great price. They may be familiar, but they can not too often be recalled:—
“Against the insidious wiles of foreign influence (I conjure you to believe me, fellow citizens) the jealousy of a free people ought to be constantly awake, since history and experience prove that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of republican government….
“The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is, in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.
“Europe has a set of primary interests which to us have none or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves by artificial ties in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations or collisions of her friendships or enmities.
“Our detached and distant situation invites and enables us to pursue a very different course. If we remain one people, under an efficient government, the period is not far off when we may defy material injury from external annoyance; when we may take suck an attitude as will cause the neutrality we may at any time resolve upon to be scrupulously respected; when belligerent nations, under the impossibility of making acquisitions upon us, will not lightly hazard the giving us provocation; when we may choose peace or war, as our interests, guided by justice, shall counsel.
“Why forego the advantages of so peculiar a situation? Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground? Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humor, or caprice?
“It is our true policy to steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world.” PRUS 170.1 – PRUS 171.2

The Last Call! O Jerusalem!: Russia warns about frozen ancient viruses, Zombie Emerges, “Safe Zone” Provocation Again? At “Brink of Game”

The Last Call! O Jerusalem!: Russia warns about frozen ancient viruses, Zombie Emerges, “Safe Zone” Provocation Again? At “Brink of Game”

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City of The Great King of The North?

It’s the Italian city home to palaces so spectacular that they’re UNESCO World Heritage sites. A city that was once home to so much wealth that the local aristocracy lived in environments literally fit for a king, and the place where Rubens began his great artistic career.

Rome? Florence? The Grand Canal-facing palaces of Venice?

Nope: Genoa.

[15]And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot. [17]And it shall come to pass after the end of seventy years, that the LORD will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire, and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.Isaiah:23:15,17

The sins of Babylon will be laid open. The fearful results of enforcing the observances of the church by civil authority, the inroads of spiritualism, the stealthy but rapid progress of the papal power—all will be unmasked. By these solemn warnings the people will be stirred. Thousands upon thousands will listen who have never heard words like these. In amazement they hear the testimony that Babylon is the church, fallen because of her errors and sins, because of her rejection of the truth sent to her from heaven. GC 606.2

Seen by many as “just” a port city — one whose approach by water is often marred by ugly postwar urban development and the sprawling port itself, which stretches nearly 14 miles along the waterfront — the capital of Liguria is in fact one of Italy’s most spectacular cities.

But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back. Nahum:2:8

It’s home to what’s said to be the most intact medieval city center in Europe, and beautiful art nouveau architecture in its “new” area (yes, this is a city where “new” is still old). But what drew UNESCO’s attention in 2006 was the Palazzi dei Rolli, or Rolli Palaces — a system of aristocratic mansions so spectacular that they were used as proto-hotels for visiting dignitaries and even royalty.

WHAT DOES ROME ITALY SELL?

Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts. Nahum:3:4

But Romanism as a system is no more in harmony with the gospel of Christ now than at any former period in her history. The Protestant churches are in great darkness, or they would discern the signs of the times. The Roman Church is far-reaching in her plans and modes of operation. She is employing every device to extend her influence and increase her power in preparation for a fierce and determined conflict to regain control of the world, to re-establish persecution, and to undo all that Protestantism has done. Catholicism is gaining ground upon every side. See the increasing number of her churches and chapels in Protestant countries. Look at the popularity of her colleges and seminaries in America, so widely patronized by Protestants. Look at the growth of ritualism in England and the frequent defections to the ranks of the Catholics. These things should awaken the anxiety of all who prize the pure principles of the gospel.
Protestants have tampered with and patronized popery; they have made compromises and concessions which papists themselves are surprised to see and fail to understand. Men are closing their eyes to the real character of Romanism and the dangers to be apprehended from her supremacy. The people need to be aroused to resist the advances of this most dangerous foe to civil and religious liberty. GC 565.4 – GC 566.1

Palazzo Spinola’s Hall of Mirrors is modeled on Versailles.

CA Alessi

Rolli is the plural of “rollo” — the old word for “list” — so the term means “Palaces of the List.” That’s up they were, quite literally, mansions added to a Renaissance-era list compiled by the all-powerful Republic of Genoa. This was no ordinary list — it was a compilation of palaces so spectacular that the state could commandeer them as lodgings for VIP visitors.

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The list was first created in 1576 by a decree of the republic’s senate “that assigns the use of private homes to host visitors of the state,” says art historian Giacomo Montanari from the University of Genoa, and the scientific curator of the Rolli Days, in which many of the palaces open up for tours.

THE MERCHANT CITY OF TRUTH?

Under the just administration of Theodoric, and the safety assured by the Gothic power, many Jews had established themselves in Rome, Genoa, Milan, and other cities, for the purposes of trade. They were permitted by express laws to dwell there. As soon as the imperial edict was known, which commanded all remaining heretics to be ranked as pagans and Jews, as the Catholics did not dare to attack the Gothic heretics, they, at Rome and Ravenna especially, riotously attacked the Jews, abused them, robbed them, and burnt their synagogues. A legal investigation was attempted, but the leaders in the riots could not be discovered. Then Theodoric levied a tax upon the whole community of the guilty cities, with which to settle the damages. Some of the Catholics refused to pay the tax. They were punished. This at once brought a cry from the Catholics everywhere, that they were persecuted. Those who had been punished were glorified as confessors of the faith, and “three hundred pulpits deplored the persecution of the Church.”— Gibbon. ECE 195.3

“Instead of being met in a royal palace, like at Versailles or Madrid, they were in the individual homes of aristocrats.”

Michelin-style palace ratings

Palazzo is the City Hall and museum.

Aivar Mikko/Alamy Stock Photo

The aristocrats already effectively ran Genoa — it was, says Montanari, an “oligarchical society.” And the mansions were even listed in different bands, depending on their quality, and who they were fine enough to host.

“They were suited to different kinds of guests — so if an ambassador arrived there were medium to high level houses, whereas for monarchs or archbishops there were places of even better quality,” says Montanari, who likens the bands to hotel star ratings or the Michelin star system. Like the latter, homes could be removed from the list or demoted down the bands if they weren’t up to scratch.

The lists were redone five times: in 1576, 1588, 1599, 1614 and 1664. Over that period, historians know of 163 homes that were on the rolls. The late historian Ennio Poleggi, who was director of the Institute of the History of Architecture at Genoa University, identified 88 that we can still recognize today. Around half of them — 42 — were added to UNESCO’s list.

“Tourists are always amazed by the beauty of our palaces,” says tour guide Laura Gregis. “Lots of them have been to Genoa before to take the ferry, but they didn’t think it was worth stopping. The Rolli Palaces are probably the most important trigger now that pushes people to see the city. In the last few years they’ve been a huge draw to the city — they perfectly represent Genoa’s economic power in the 16th and 17th centuries, and the UNESCO listing has made them even more famous.”

Let us recite some of the events of 1800 that would seem to fix the date of the 45 years at that time. The papal government was overturned in Feb. 1798—the Pope, Pius VL, retiring to Tuscany, a little north of Rome. In March, 1799, he was seized by the French and taken to Leghorn, a sea-port, for the purpose of being conveyed to Cagliari, a town in the island of Sardmin; but the English frigates cruising on the coast wanted to get possession of the Pope, which determined the French original illegible his destination. They look him across the Appennines and the Alps to Valence, a town in the south-west part of France, where he died in August following. He had been torn from his dominion, and a new government established in his capital. It is usual in times of peace for the original illegible of Cardinals to assemble on the day of the interment of the deceased Pope, for the election of a new one; but such was the distracted state of affairs that this was impossible. But the Austrians becoming victorious over the French in Italy, the college was, by this event, permitted to assemble at Venice, without the Papal territories, in Nov. 1799, and by the 13th March, 1800 elected Pius VII. He did not, however, go immediately to Rome. The French were masters of all Italy at the end of 1798, and at the beginning of 1799 had 110,000 men in that country. Austria having made a treaty of alliance with Russia near the close of 1798, the latter sent 60,000 troops to the north of Italy by the spring of 1799. The campaign of this year, while Bonaparte was absent in Egypt, lost all Italy to the French expect the single fortress of Genoa. The Papal territories were now recovered to the Catholics. It is worthy of note here, that in 538, 10,000 men from France, and in the spring of 539, 100,000 more under their king, invaded and ravaged the whole length of Italy, siding neither with the Gothic king nor with Belisarius the Catholic general, both of whom fled before the Franks. Through disease and other causes, the Franks lost one-third of their number and the remainder returned to France in 539. Precisely in 1260 years, after the French, with an equal number of men, have possession of Italy, and like wise yield it up in 1799. Bonaparte who had returned from Egypt, went early in 1800 to Lombardy and THE BATTLE OF MARENGO, on the 14th June, decided again the fate of Italy. What had been lost to the French in 1798 was now regained. Napoleon re-organized some of the government in the north of Italy, and returned to Paris. Rome and the Papal dominions were now, June 1800, virtually in the possession of France. The French surrendered Rome on Oct., 1799, to the Neapolitan troops, and when these evacuated the Roman territories, subsequent to the battle of Marengo , Murat, according to orders from Bonaparte, “carefully respected the territory of the Church, and re-installed the officers of the Pope in what had long been considered the patrimony of St. Peter’s. This unexpected turn of circumstances originated in high policy of Bonaparte.”— Scott’s Napoleon . JUBST July 31, 1845, page 154.1

The ‘city of miracles’

[4]Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God. [9]Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2 Thessalonians:2:4,9

Palazzo Spinola is now an art gallery.

Toni Spagone/Realy Easy Star/Alamy Stock Photo

That’s because the palaces aren’t just works of art in themselves — they represent the mindblowing story of Genoa’s success.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, this was known as “la città dei miracoli” — the city of miracles — because “absolutely unthinkable things could happen there,” says Montanari. In 1528, Genoese politician Andrea Doria signed a deal with Holy Roman Emperor Charles V for Genoese bankers to become the biggest financiers of the Spanish crown.

“This allowed them to construct a series of very high risk activities with unthinkable amounts of money, even by today’s standards,” he says, equating it to today’s global stock exchange. “The biggest loans in history were done by the Genoese in the 16th and 17th centuries.”

And that unthinkable wealth allowed them to redo their homes, build new ones, and essentially build a whole new city on top of the old. These are the “new streets” or “strade nuove” recognized by UNESCO. Three streets — via Garibaldi, via Balbi and via Cairoli — wrap around Genoa’s original medieval center, filled with vast palaces, built on that unimaginable banking wealth. Via Garibaldi, which sits at the northern edge of the medieval city, on a hillside, was in fact called “Strada Nuova” or “new street” when it was built. The buildings are so impressive that painter Rubens — who came to Genoa for his first commissions — published a book of drawings of them all in 1622.

There are also Palazzi dei Rolli down below, in the medieval core — but, says Montanari, those are medieval buildings that were repurposed and expanded, rather than being built from scratch. That’s why they’re not included in the UNESCO listing.

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In 2006, UNESCO inscribed “Le Strade Nuove and the system of the Rolli Palaces” onto its World Heritage List, including 42 of the 88 buildings that are still known today — those that were built from scratch during the 16th and 17th centuries in the “new streets” rather than the medieval mansions that were converted. “UNESCO wanted to highlight the new city built by this new aristocratic society which had a new role in Europe as great bankers and financiers — people who held the financial survival of the kingdoms of Europe in their hands,” says Montanari.

It is, he says, a place where time has stopped. “The Strada Nuova [Via Garibaldi] is still exactly as it was in 1580 when it was finished, and you can enter into the heart of a renaissance European city. It is extraordinary.

Shops and bars as palaces

The great sin charged against Babylon is that she “made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” This cup of intoxication which she presents to the world represents the false doctrines that she has accepted as the result of her unlawful connection with the great ones of the earth. Friendship with the world corrupts her faith, and in her turn she exerts a corrupting influence upon the world by teaching doctrines which are opposed to the plainest statements of Holy Writ.
Rome withheld the Bible from the people and required all men to accept her teachings in its place. It was the work of the Reformation to restore to men the word of God; but is it not too true that in the churches of our time men are taught to rest their faith upon their creed and the teachings of their church rather than on the Scriptures? Said Charles Beecher, speaking of the Protestant churches: “They shrink from any rude word against creeds with the same sensitiveness with which those holy fathers would have shrunk from a rude word against the rising veneration of saints and martyrs which they were fostering…. The Protestant evangelical denominations have so tied up one another’s hands, and their own, that, between them all, a man cannot become a preacher at all, anywhere, without accepting some book besides the Bible…. There is nothing imaginary in the statement that the creed power is now beginning to prohibit the Bible as really as Rome did, though in a subtler way.”—Sermon on “The Bible a Sufficient Creed,” delivered at Fort Wayne, Indiana, Feb. 22, 1846. GC 388.2 – GC 388.3

Design shop Via Garibaldi 12 is set in a Rolli Palace.

Via Garibaldi 12

Of course, hosting kings, queens and ambassadors at your own home was no easy task. The state didn’t pay expenses so owners were tasked with significant outlay. On the plus side, it allowed several families to monetize the access they were acquiring to the great and good. The Pallavicino family built a fortune by wangling the monopoly on quarries of alum — a chemical compound used to fix fabric dyes — in what’s now Lazio through contacts made during their hosting. Others were less lucky, and therefore less happy. Another aristocrat, Andrea Spinola, “lashed out several times about the decree,” says Montanari. Don’t feel too sorry for him, though — he became the 99th doge (duke, or ruler) of Genoa.

Today, many of the palaces are open to the public. Some are museums — like Palazzo Spinola, now the Liguria region’s premier art gallery. On the Strada Nuova itself, three palazzos — Rosso (red), Bianco (white) and Tursi have been turned into a “scattered” museum of paintings, frescoes, ceramics, coins… and the musical instruments of Genoese violinist Paganini.

But this is a city that lives its history rather than calcifies it in museums, so many of the other Palazzi dei Rolli are visitable every day, as shops, bars and banks. About half of the of the UNESCO-listed ones are always accessible, says Montanari — whether they are council buildings, belong to the university, or are museums. But there are other, privately owned ones, too. Many open their doors for the twice-yearly Rolli Days events.

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Walk the Strada Nuova and you’ll be able to walk into many of the buildings. Some are still homes — but allow you to see their fancy entranceways, atriums and staircases. Others are banks, keeping up that centuries-old tradition (Deutsche Bank at number 5 is particularly beautiful).

Via Garibaldi 12 is both the address and the name of a design shop, where items from the likes of Alessi sit beside Zara Hadid furniture under gold stucco and mirrored walls of this Rolli Palace. The building was renovated in 1770 by Charles de Wailly, a French architect who had also worked at Versailles. Outside he planned a simple neoclassical façade — all the better to “amaze guests with the richness of gold and the multiplication of the mirror in the interior rooms,” says shop owner Lorenzo Bagnara. In fact, one of the store’s rooms is a mini Hall of Mirrors. (There are also Versailles-like Halls of Mirrors at Palazzo Spinola and Palazzo Reale, Genoa’s “royal” palace, even though it never had a royal family.)

“The idea putting the store on the second floor, without windows on the street, very much reflects the city,” says Bagnara, who has a degree in the conservation of cultural heritage. “I find that in Genoa there is always a sense of discovery and finding something unexpected.”

The store design seeks to “juxtapose tradition and the present,” he said, with gilded wood meeting steel displays. In his university thesis he wrote about “how the recovery of a place of historical and artistic value can only be achieved through knowledge of it, and how the inclusion of an activity, albeit a commercial one, that includes respect for the space in which it is housed, can be a vehicle for the enjoyment and maintenance of the property,” he says.

Down in the medieval core is Les Rouges, a cocktail bar inside Palazzo Imperiale, built around 1560 for the Imperiale family who still own it, and in the Rolli from 1576 to 1664.

“It’s different from regular offices — it’s a very special atmosphere,” says Les Rouges manager Matteo Cagnolari of his workplace. It’s not all plain sailing — strict conservation rules mean they can’t even install air conditioning — but Cagnolari says he wouldn’t swap it for the world.

“Lots of the palazzos still have private owners — often the same families that built them — so the owners don’t need to make them into museums,” he says, of why Genoa is special. Above their bar is an architectural studio.

In fact, the Genoese are so used to seeing these works of art as ordinary buildings, that many have forgotten that it isn’t normal.

Palazzo Rosso is an art gallery on Via Garibaldi.

dudlajzov/Adobe Stock

“Sometimes they don’t see the beauty of our city,” says Gregis. “I’ve been asked, ‘But where do you take tourists? What do you show them?'”

For Montanari, this mix of ancient and new preserves Genoa’s identity, keeping it alive — ever more important as the number of visitors rises and Airbnbs expand across the city.

“Here, tourists are amazed that the city lives independently from them. They love that tourists are welcomed, but that activities are not aimed only at tourists,” he says.

“It keeps these spaces alive, and it maintains the Genoese way of life in a way that Florence and Venice have lost.”

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