Kosmo

In AD 100 the Roman officer and future emperor Hadrian had a nice beard.

I think McCain's strong points were his experience and his seriousness compared with Obama, but with this hunter, beauty pageant, hockey grandma from the wilderness he shot himself in the leg. His conservative base would have voted for him anyway, so maybe he needed somebody with more centrist views to bring the undecided and the dissatisfied HRC supporters. Palin with her radical conservative views would help draw a clear line between Dem's and Rep's

Romania lost at home against the "famous" Lithuania with a clear and shameful 3-0. This group started with some surprises for us and the french...

Rice was rarely used in Europe before Renaissance when cultivation was started in the Po valley and in Valencia area. Corn (I suppose you mean maize) and potatoes were imports from America. So your farms belong at the earliest to the XVII C AD. Mixing Romans with the other modern people it's strange, but it's even stranger to have Taoist Dutch and Confucianist Romans. You will need enormous numbers of skins for buildings and people to cover all combinations. Have just 1 civ like everybody else did or at least stay with an era.

The style it's that of Hellenistic period.

"Europe has a rich history of wars, invasions and migrations, seemingly enough to have mixed its population pretty thoroughly. But it turns out that there is a geographical pattern to European genetics. By analyzing people's genomes, geneticists can tell roughly where in Europe they come from. The genetic differences across Europe are so slight that examining them just one at a time would mean almost nothing. But a new generation of gene chips

"The largest collection of antique shipwrecks ever found in Norway has been discovered under mud at the building site for a new highway tunnel in Oslo, the project's lead archaeologist said Friday. The archaeologist, Jostein Gundersen, said at least nine wooden boats, the largest of them 17 meters, or 56 feet, long, were found well preserved nearly 400 years after they sank at Bjoervika, an Oslo inlet near the new national opera house. "For us, this is a sensation," he said. "There has never been a find of so many boats and in such good condition at one site in Norway." The wrecks were remarkably well preserved because they had been covered in mud and fresh water, where river waters reach the sea, he said. "We have a fantastic opportunity to learn more about old shipbuilding techniques and the old harbors," said Gundersen of the Norwegian Maritime Museum in Oslo". http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/29/europe/29ships3.php

I liked her much more in Battlestar Galactica. She was blonde here She almost made me believe that there is only one god... BTW I watched BSG because some of you said it's good and I must say that I enjoyed it a lot. I took me a week to see it all, with pilots and Razor etc but it was worth it. Thank you for the tip.

JR - Romanian news used western media as source and given our history with Russia it's obviously pro-georgian. The president did not miss the chance to point that Kosovo it's a bad precedent (Romania does not recognize Kosovo) Transnistria in Moldova, Abhazia and South Ossetia in Georgia were created by direct actions of the Soviet and Russian army in the early 90's. They are puppet governments still under russian army protection and Russia does not recognize their independence probably because it wants to annex them. The independence of Abhazia and South Ossetia would stir trouble for Russians in the many North Caucasus federal entities that they rule, including much larger North Ossetia and rebel Cecenia. For the Georgians South Ossetia it's important because it controls the mountain pass on the main military road between Georgia and Russia. If the Georgians would have reached that pass before Russian reinforcements the war would have been more complicated. But their military moves seemed chaotic while Russians showed speed and determination (and surprising use of lots of guided ammunition). Ukraine plays a double game showing support for Georgia to get in good books with the Americans while continuously allowed the existence of Transnistria since 1991. All the trade and supplies of this landlocked entity, including the personnel, weapons and supplies of the Russian 14th Army still defending Transnistria are passing Ukraine.

"Your final score is: 11793" I got a score? What for?

On a lighter note http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/07/29/hea...ence/29tier.php

By outsourcing this functions The test could focus on revealing ones political ideas even when these ideas don't make any sense. Probably in this test there are several sub-tests for different topics each determining one of the results without influencing each other. This reminds me of the game http://www.nationstates.net/ where your decisions change your nation but the changes can be poorly correlated creating absurd situations. It was a fun game for a while and can be seen as a political quiz.

Overall, the quiz considers you a materialist, small-government, nationalist, protectionist, non-absolutist, controlled-market kind of person, who doesn't sound like a Marxist. These characteristics would put you in the overall category of social conservative protectionist. "90% of test takers were more Marxist than you" - not really a surprise

In the spirit of the thread: Gerard Baker's Barak Obama: The Child - The Messiah - The Obamessiah <Click Here> And going back to humor, does anyone find this funny, compared to the New Yorker cover for instance? I found it funny in the beginning, but after a while it became repetitive and boring.

Romans soldiers had to fight in really cold climate in some parts of the empire. Often the frozen Danube was crossed by barbarians and the romans had to fight them. Sandals would have not been a good option at -20 C. The following link shows the frozen sea in what was the roman port of Tomis. Sure Ovid had reasons to complain about his exile here. http://www.panoramio.com/photo/1286199

Senators were a part of the roman oligarchy during the principate as was the imperial court. The functions of the Senate in that period were much less important then the power of the senators. Rather then a deliberative body it was a pool of wealthy, influential and skilled administrators. By establishing almost a monopoly on the consulate the Flavians and especially Domitian seriously hampered the evolution of the career for many senators. Being a consul was very prestigious and made the person eligible to lead a pro-consular province. That was one of the reasons why Domitian was hated by many senators. The other reasons also tend to make him despotic and not republican.

Was it possible for the International Panel for Climate Change to find that there is no climate change? The Wikipedia article on IPCC says that "The IPCC does not carry out research, nor does it monitor climate or related phenomena" and it's functions are more like that of a publishing house. Does not sound too authoritative for me.

Many people in that link said that you can not make fun of Obama because he is black and their audiences will see their jokes as racist. This is how the democrats are using this cartoon, by showing that making fun of Obama it's racist and full of prejudice, by vilifying his opponents while they also victimize him. They make a media show and make harsh comments bringing the issue to spotlight and many people will think "poor Obama the nasty Republicans are making tasteless racist jokes about him" I don't believe that liberals and democrats are pissed off over the cover. They made it.

Thank you A for sharing this exceptional article. I love it when a historian does not only present the "finds" but also puts them under scrutiny. It was a detailed article that tried to explain iron working technology, how archeology looks for ancient iron working and the problems it might get in. This quote it's precious: "Two samples from the site yielded radiocarbon dates of 2640

Casting Farm Implements, Comparable Tools and Hardware in Ancient China, by W. Rostoker, B. Bronson, J. Dvorak and G. Shen published in World Archaeology

Salve A. You said: "Regarding EXCLUSIVELY my provided video (link), both of us may very well have been reading different documents." Indeed. 1.Iron use in China occurred later then in the West. "The evidence presented thus far suggests that iron-smelting techniques developed in the West had by the eighth century BC been brought by nomadic peoples of Central Asia all the way to the Pacific coast, and that these techniques diffused to the smiths of the Chinese states by way of various non-Chinese peoples of the northwest, in what is now Xinjiang." "But while the use of wrought iron and the bloomery started in the northwest, and was a borrowed Western technique..." 2. These early Chinese iron products were of lesser quality but cheaper then bronze products so the use on bronze continued longer then in the West. "In whatever way cast iron was discovered, for most purposes it would not have been a good material. It would have been very low in silicon, and therefore be what is called white cast iron, which is difficult to cast and also very hard and brittle. The only advantage would have been that it was cheaper than bronze. In the north the primary applications for bronze were weapons and symbolic objects of various kinds. Substitution of white cast iron for bronze in weaponry would have had disastrous effects, and casting difficulties would have made its use unlikely in fine ritual vessels." The last part of the above statement was my conclusion. 3.There is no statement that Chinese iron products were superior to their western contemporaries while the bronze products are regarded as of higher quality. no quote needed 4. Cast iron, especially the white variety, has fewer uses to the wrought iron produced in bloomery because it's brittle. "In the early West, until the advent of the iron cannon in Medieval times, no economically important use was known for cast iron..." "How the cast-iron implements compared with bronze ones in practical use is difficult to know. The extreme hardness of white cast iron would have made it extremely wear-resistant, but also liable to break." Let's see if we can work out an agreement on our interpretations of this article. I'll make again some statements and you will say if you agree or not with each of them and add your own if you want. 1. The technology of iron-smelting in bloomery was developed in the West and imported in China. 2. The technology to produce cast iron was developed in VI C BC in South China. 3. Cast iron can be produced by accident in a bloomery. 4. The early cast iron that the Chinese produced was white cast iron. 5. White cast iron it's hard to use especially in weapons. 6. A better variety, the malleable cast iron, was developed at an unspecified date. 7. Malleable cast iron it's competitive with wrought iron and steel. 8. The development of high bloomery, blast furnace and finery improved the technology further at unknown dates.

I think Obama can count on much more sympathies abroad then any Republican. In places like France and Egypt there are many signs of Obamania and, with proper coverage, this can be turned in a political advantage at home.

I think this Obama cartoon it's a very clever political move on his side.

Salve A I drew some conclusions from the link you provided us with. Iron use in China occurred later then in the West. These early Chinese iron products were of lesser quality but cheaper then bronze products so the use on bronze continued longer then in the West. There is no statement that Chinese iron products were superior to their western contemporaries while the bronze products are regarded as of higher quality. Cast iron, especially the white variety, has fewer uses to the wrought iron produced in bloomery because it's brittle.