Kosmo

I think it is because after 30 years we will know better how to protect them.

The so called national-states of Europe are under pressure from below and above. I don't pity them because they brought only absurd distinctions and conflicts. The desire for local autonomy it's understandable and so is that of creating a more meaningful federation where jingoist nationalism has no place. It' nothing wrong for us to have a say at local, national and federal levels and to have a balance of power between them. It's better to have international relations on a more equal, cooperative footing rather then hegemonic like before. I think that you're wrong about the Treaty of Lisbon because it does not create a common government, but reduces the number of members in the existing Commission (because they can not use 27 people) and creates an office of president of the Commission. Also believing that the fledging Bruxelles bureaucracy will send troops (who's troops?) to quell dissent it's really ridiculous.

They look more like ruins then empires to me... France, Britain, US, Holland were in late XIX - early XX imperialist democracies.

"Microbes eating away at pieces of history At Angkor Wat, the dancers' feet are crumbling. The palatial 12th-century Hindu temple, shrouded in the jungles of Cambodia, has played host to a thriving community of cyanobacteria ever since unsightly lichens were cleaned off its walls nearly 20 years ago. The microbes have not been good guests. These bacteria (Gloeocapsa) not only stain the stone black, they also increase the water absorbed by the shale in morning monsoon rains and the heat absorbed when the sun comes out. The result, says Thomas Warscheid, a geomicrobiologist based in Germany, is a daily expansion and contraction cycle that cracks the temple's facade and its internal structure. Warscheid, who has studied Angkor Wat for more than a decade, said in an interview that these pendulum swings had broken away parts of celestial dancer sculptures on the temple walls" ... "Microbes pose a serious risk to the monuments at the Acropolis in Athens, including the golden-proportioned Parthenon and the Temple of Athena Nike, said Sophia Papida, conservator for the Acropolis Restoration Service. Bacteria penetrate the veins of the marble, attract water and expand, cracking the monuments' faces and pillars, Papida said. Lichens burrow circular holes in the marble, a phenomenon known as honeycomb weathering, and exfoliate sculptural friezes that tell the stories of gods and goddesses. Microbes also thwart painstaking efforts to restore the monuments. Acropolis stones can crumble into thousands of pieces, leaving a near-inscrutable jigsaw puzzle. "Our work is attacked by micro-organisms and we have to go back, remove the micro-organisms and put it back together," Papida said. "The bacteria which are there, they are having a good time, actually." ... http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/24/hea...ence/24micr.php

A. you have a fine point, even more, Goteborg was founded in the the XVII C AD... Still a constitutive part of Sweden was the Gotoland/Gautland/Geatland with a separate identity. I could not find out if the title king of Goths of the Swedish kings came from this region or from Gothicismus.

There are limits to the extent of European unity. First of all, as W. Kymlicka points out in a different context, modern political life can exist only at national level because of the language barrier. See Belgium where the linguistic groups threaten to disband the country because no longer political parties cross the language barrier. So, no european parties. Second, national identity it's still the frame of reference for everybody and European identity could not replace that in the foreseeable future. The break ups of Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union, the movements in Corsica, Catalonia, Scotland etc. are clear proofs of the strength of nationalism. European identity would be based on national identity not against it. Because of the political fragmentation no dictator could hope to gain power in 30 different political systems and over 30 sets of national institutions. EU it's a bulwark against authoritarianism.

I need my daily football fix

Don't worry A., for me it was easier to recognize the scant map features because I live in this depicted area. sonic - First of all it's presumed that all germans came from Scandinavia. Second we have goths and romans saying that, Jordanes after Cassiodorus, and we have place names in Scandinavia that might be connected with Goths. Geats is the name of a local tribe in Southern Sweden - Gotolanda that were also called goths in much later sources. Then we have a culture south of Baltic with Scandinavian features. Here is the title of Charles X of Sweden 1654-1660 : King of Sweden, the Goths and the Wends; etc. etc. What we have against this theory?

My results http://www.politicalcompass.org/printableg...88&soc=0.56 place me close to Zapatero

No, free dacians (carpii and costobocii) and former roman proper Dacia are included in the gothic orange while moesians are not around anymore. The region on the map below the Danube Delta (Moesia Inferior) should have been roman purple. The region between the roman purple on Middle Danube and the gothic orange, the puzta - Tisza plain, belongs to sarmatian people - the yaziges. I believe it does. As Diegis pointed above the Cernihov material culture (named Sintana de Mures in Romania) was made from several elements including roman provincial and free dacian. I see things like this: a german speaking group vaguely identified as goths moves from Scandinavia to Ukraine. Here in a long time they combine with sarmatians, mixed greeks from Bosporan, free dacians, romans form Dacia etc creating a new group that still speaks german and identify as goths. This group moves to the Northern Balkans were it changes again and from there moves in two waves to Italy and Spain where they finally are absorbed by romance speakers.

I think this link was posted before. The author oversimplifies and has huge errors of judgment. So many that I feel that pointing them would involve to much effort for it's worth. Europe it's not an empire, being rather reluctant to expand, but a federation based on common values and needs. Misgivings are many like the Irish just showed, but the benefits clearly are much better at least on the continent where nation-states have a long history of conflict. There is no middle way between tribal states in perpetual competition and a broad based unity.

Indeed a lot of diving tonight in a rather ugly and boring game. As Romanians know well a testudo it's worth only if one has something to defend. Italians did nothing to win the game hoping for some chance that they did not get. Maybe if the referee gave the Spaniards that penalty kick as he should have, Italy would have start playing something before the extra time. This way of closing the game without a serious attempt to score first is the error of Donadoni that has no place coaching Italy. Testudo it's good for closing a game not starting it. Spain - Russia should be a nice game especially because russians simply don't defend and attack whenever they have the ball.

Holland - Russia was clearly the most beautiful game yet with over 50 shots fired and fast attacks. My favorites, the dutch, played unconvincing and Russia deserved to win. Holland joins Portugal and Croatia among the group leaders that go home in the quarterfinals. It's Spain next?

I know that there are some historians, especially in Britain, that deny migrations and place the accent on the creation of new identities. While this is interesting and opens new paths I have no doubts that migrations occured and there are many well recorded modern examples. We know that goths were german speaking and we see people with german names in places were before there were none. Did the sarmatians, celts and dacians of the Black Sea area became german speaking just thru cultural exchange with a distant population? I see your point, archeologists looked for a change in the baltic area and when they found something they corelated it with their written sources. But it's harder for me to believe that goths resulted from the changes of sarmatian society. You're welcome Nephele! Wikipedia it's getting better. I've recently spent a lot of time reading good quality things about more obscure things like the polish-lithuanian republic.

I have an ID like hundreds of millions of Europeans and I have no problems with that. It serves to identify a person and that's useful with "marriages, births, school enrollments, credit ratings, insurance policies, membership in political parties and unions and churches". It does not mean that someone gathers all this data and then uses it against me. And it does not mean that the state can deny me my rights.

The island of Scandza it's probably the Scandinavian peninsula where an area named G

We have now a nice 16% income tax regardless of the size of the income (before it was progressive so I could end up with a 40% tax). I'm less happy with the indirect taxes that were raised with EU accession, especially those on gas and cigarettes are bad. The gas price it's greatly increased by a tax and then by VAT applied even to the tax. Still, we have now no tax to imports from EU and those from outside EU were greatly reduced. I'm an welfare liberal, believing in personal freedom and a "free market" but also I believe that the state should act so no one lives in abject poverty. With less poor the society it's better for everybody. I do think that personal freedom it's worthless without some economic safety. Otherwise we're slaves to the grind...

This will give the Germans a chance to revenge the defeat in the group. The only question is who will lose the final to Germany?

With 80 points on personal and 20 on economic I'm a liberal. No surprise here.

Goths were not originated from the Black Sea area. They came here from the Baltic. When they arrived in the steppe of today's Ukraine Scythians existed no more, being replaced by related Sarmatians. Indeed, the name scythians for goths (and for other much later people) was a historic topos, a name taken from old books to give a classic feel to contemporaneous events.

king hannibal, you should edit wikipedia !

Romania played nothing tonight and we did not deserved to win against Holland's second team. We had our chance and, typically, we blow it. The dutch were a team to defeat but our players did nothing. The second half was really embarrassing and I and other in the pub applauded the second dutch goal. With this morale our team had no place there. I hope Holland will win the tournament because their team it's high in a positive way. I cheer for Italy only when they play against south-americans so never at Euro. I did not see their game against France, but I hope if Italians play against Holland in the semifinals to see them get their revenge. I will cheer for Holland and against Italy in all other games. I admire turkish players for their dedication and courage. They don't have a great team and the czech, that I wanted to win, were better players, but football it's a game of hearts and minds before legs. I would have loved to see romanians play in the second half like the turks did even if Holland would have won 5-0. Still I like Croatia (bleah!) best over Turkey. Holland, Portugal and Spain (not if they play like they did against Sweden) are my favorites.

I don't idealize the quality of life in paleolithic, but a government, be it a national one or a supra-national entity can have only 2 stark choices: leave them be or assimilate them in modern society. The first can lead to physical extinction while the second to massive cultural change and loss of identity. A book written by a french Indiana Jones the went native in French Guyana presented in an attractive way the dilemmas facing this communities. He tried to give basic medical care and to help natives access the medical facilities but this brought opposition from shamans because illness it's always connected with religious beliefs. The natives and the authorities wanted greater contact but he was trying to preserve the local way of life and to reduce exposure to diseases. See the problems in Canada where the government had to apologize for forcing native children in schools: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/12/america/canada.php and similar titles like "Canada's PM makes official apology to aboriginal people forced into assimilation schools" "Canada's leader to apologize to aboriginals for schools meant to strip them of culture"

My source is Justinian, Malalas, and the End of Athenian Philosophical Teaching in A.D. 529 * Edward Watts * The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 94, (2004), pp. 168-182 * Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies available on Jstor. This connects the end of the Athenian philosophical school with the moves of the pious emperor Justinian against paganism and divination rather then against classical studies. "One must then explain how the teaching of philosophy and astronomy in Athens could be prohibited by a law that more generally forbade the use of dice. The common thread linking all of these activities seems to be the act of divining the future. Divination was a skill that greatly interested Damascius and his associates, especially when it could be done in a novel way.37 Astronomy, through its derivative astrology, was also useful in foretelling the future and, as it was taught in the Athenian Neoplatonic school, its astrological element was neither separated nor downplayed.38 Although one would not immediately think it, dice too could be used for divination. The use of dice to divine the future is well attested in antiquity.39 It worked in a number of different ways but, on its most basic level, the practice relied upon a conversion chart that joined a set of numbers to a corresponding fortune. Particularly relevant to Malalas' notice is the detailed process of divination by dice laid out in a Latin manuscript of the sixth or seventh century A.D.4? This manuscript suggests a process that worked much like its ancient antecedents. The fortune-teller would have his questioner roll a twelve-sided die or a set of two dice. Then, checking the number that came up against a chart containing common questions and a list of answers, the interpreter would provide his questioner with the answer matching the number that he rolled. Much better known (although often less well-understood) is the Sortes Sanctorum, a divinatory text that was commonly used in Late Antiquity.4 It was apparently based upon a pagan original and, like its pagan antecedent, the Sortes Sanctorum relied upon dice combinations to divine responses to questions.42 A much later variation of this game is especially interesting in the light of Malalas' text. At the court of Charles V, a game called roughly 'The Dodecahedron of Fortune' was played using, surprisingly enough, a twelve-sided die. Each face of the die represented one of the twelve houses of the heavens. After a series of rolls, the die would provide its roller with a horoscope43 and, as such, the game joined astrology and dice for divinatory purposes." "For the use of dice oracles in antiquity see W. Hansen, 'Fortune telling', in W. Hansen (ed.), An Anthology of Ancient Greek Popular Literature (1998), 285-91; R. Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (1986), 20o9-o; and the more extensive treatment of C. Naour, Tyriaion en Cabalide (1980), 22-37. Addi- tional epigraphic evidence for the practice has been found in Pamphylia, Pisidia, and Lycia. Pausanias 7.25.6 describes the mechanics of such oracles." Sorry Neph, but I said "probably" and "rather" not "strictly". The signs on the dice are strange for me and seem like mystical symbols while a game needs easy to understand signs. Of course I could be very wrong...

12 sided dice were used by romans for divination. Probably this one as well, rather then been used for games.