caesar novus

Here is a walkthru of Pontius Pilates pilgrim's road, which has been excavated horizontally for over a third of a mile 50 feet under Jerusalem. I gather it is nearing being opened to tourists, altho excavation is still in progress as you can see by the host disturbingly yanking artifacts out of a wall of dirt. It was super expensive and high tech to dig without disturbing the surface:

Here is an outstanding example of Indian fusion music accented with modern sensibilities. I attempt to drop you into the middle so as not to miss amazing solo vocals, tabla, etc:

Lucky it's not in the dark parts of below map, which are occupied. And a few hours ago AP warned about the remainder:

Or Circus Moderatus? The famous one in Rome is 2,037 ft by 387 ft and there was for a while an even bigger one near the present central train station. The well preserved Circus of Maxentius on via Appia of Rome has a spina barrier alone of exactly 1000 Roman feet: P.S. for those concerned about unprecedented tourist crowds in Rome, I have only ever seen at most a couple of visitors at this atmospheric site. One in a cluster of many undervisited sites.

I'm gonna try embedding a youtube "short" here, to lessen inflicting my taste on folks. In this case and maybe others you can click on link of longer version if you like:

So limes means frontiers. Those Roman frontier books as well as many other archeo ones are available on free (slow) pdf downloads at https://www.archaeopress.com/Archaeopress/Open-Access/Open-Access . Some have great photography; I will post a few examples:

Some may not be subscribed to this alternate T.I.S. channel, so am posting a pretty juicy video on Herculaneum. I don't agree that Herc outshines Pompeii, but almost every voice of the internet does so. Note how it's most prominent person is a rich ex slave; think of that when Rome is getting stereotyped for slavery. While waiting for part 2, let me concede that Herc. may eventually outshine Pompeii when it's vast outer footprint is dug up. Everyone assumes it will take centuries to push residents off that land, but here is a video showing how depopulation is sweeping Italy now; they are turning the lights off in Genoa for instance. Some complain about Zeihan's sweeping generalizations, and it is true that his value comes from being a provocative brainstormer, novel yet plausible. Here is wise myth punching spin about his most famous claims, and hopefully that allows more optimism for Italy:

The above rules are enforced by forum software. As you can see by clicking on this "Ask the Expert" directory, there have been no replies to questions allowed here for 13 years. Any ungrateful person that objects to me being anointed as the sole giver of answers and receiver of ad revenue must reply to this post. 😬

I had listened to his much longer recent podcast on the subject, but I'm not sure it's for everyone (thus he uses his alternate channel):

Instrumental versions by early Stones have aged better:

Thanks, it's nice to see you swing your sword against nonsense again; you were getting so genial that I worried that we (and especially I) seemed too hopeless for you to even waste time with debate. Anyway that medical series started as a learning exercise by a young med student. Now as it moves on to obscurities maybe I should unsubscribe. I think it was he that scared me by depicting essential tremor as statistically a stepping stone to dementia. It looks tricky to diagnose, and with modern vascular clogging lifestyles maybe most cases are undiagnosed. However the condition may be self limiting in that working the affected arm hard makes you want to sit down with head spinning. Folks seem oblivious to lifestyle realities, eg they say take this drug unless you are diagnosed with wonky kidneys. Well, about 110% of the population will eventually have wonky kidneys so better stick to things like tylenol which hurts livers (of alcoholics) rather than kidneys? I was the guilty one to digress on "handedness". Not only for dexterity but strength. I hereby end my effort to train my left hand because it leaves both hands equally unexceptional, based experience opening the same jumbo jars of olives for example. I had a fear of losing use of my dexterous hand because practice with my other one was a failure. But recently I lost use of the right for a while, and found that panicked focus could get the left to perform well (if slowly). Sorry for my fixation, but I once had to measure hundreds of lobsters for a research project and was repelled by their asymmetric claw "handedness". It's logical to differentiate but would you want the mother of your children to have one hand a crusher and the other a ripper?

Is there some reason 90% of folks are right handed? Even ancient mariners called the right side of boats "starboard" because their dominant right hand steered with a board hung off right side of hull. Wiki suggests the issue may be Darwinian: Anyway here is something even right handers can consider to reduce negative effects of the left side curse. If you have risk factor of vascular disease (common narrowing with plaque) it normally chokes the left arm artery more than right. The bizarre thing is the onward artery to the brain can be thrown in reverse, sucked down by a busy left arm giving you dizziness and confusion. Maybe don't be like me and try to train the left hand/arm to do half the work 😃 . But before immobilizing your left arm in a sling, remember it once in a while plagues right arms.

I think the root cause of Nile fluctuations are based on the interactions of the Blue Nile and the White Nile upstream. I believe the Blue contributes most water, but only for 5 months of the year and can even dry up otherwise. Ethiopia plans to dam the Blue, which would then be steadier as the reservoir can drive turbines even in dry months. However, like the Egyptian dam it may evaporate away half it's water not counting irrigation. Egypt threatens to bomb the Ethiopian dam, but may have to blow up it's own due to silting up. The White is really long and may cross several mini climates.

This is one of the best aerial Rome videos, altho a little heavy on dramatic dawn/dusk lighting and color boost (HDR?). You can navigate to ancient stuff with the chapters if not wanting the full hour. BTW if you for instance sampled a Greek video in that channel (not as good) then bailed out, you may suffer several days of youtube hammering you with endless recommended Greek videos. Youtube describes a way to limit this digression from your interest profile, maybe cultivated for years. Go into History (sometimes under Library) and X out or otherwise delete the Greek vid from your history - voila! Also delete from Watch Later if applicable; do all this sooner rather than later.

Here is a new explanation of how the effort will be to restore continuity from the current disjoint messiness. Since the forum was dug out in separate stages, there are all kind of artificial boundaries and obstacles between them that will be eliminated. Also from the time the forum went from free to paid, there are clunky "jail" borders that can be made more subtle and enticing to lure folks in. This not only for tourists but the casual strolling Italian taxpayer who may or may not fund further support.

Needn't read reuters; those 2 articles are word for word the same, except the reuters one only posts a generic photo.

One evening in narrow passages of Rome I ran across a wine fest. For eu5 they gave a wineglass with strap around your neck, good for unlimited visits to tasting stations. I'm not big on wine or any alcohol, but was seduced by their sweet wines in fancy bottles maybe similar to above. Be prepared for serendipity (and disappointment) in Rome. P.S. I ran across claim that Rome had a racetrack larger than Circus Maximus but it was abandoned after a decade. Traces east of central train station.

Time Team regular Guy de la Bédoyère outlines the disturbing fate of most artifacts and even basic archeo site info after the initial headlines. Site reports are either not written or pulped; computer formats go obsolete. Museums put stuff in irretrievable storage, uncataloged. This in the most well meaning of places such as UK, he maps out the inevitable incentives leading to this. Even in the headlines, unwarranted claims are typically made such as ownership of villas or ID of sculptures. He has made great efforts to counter this with no joy:

Wow, this book looks good about Rome's everyday folks by a prolific author, historian, and documentary regular. Not a marxist moan about the downtrodden but a celebration: "A cavalcade of noise and confusion in an ancient temple". My library has it on order. His youtube channel is a treasure https://www.youtube.com/@ClassCiv/videos and who better to review the book but Guy de la Bedoyere himself:

Well, that explains to me why the nearby Antalya archeo museum seems much better endowed with Roman sculpture than the Istanbul Archeo museum, the latter not having a youtube video worthy of putting in my signature museum playlist. Next I would like explained what activities went on in a stadium of that type - seems the wrong shape for horse racing, plays, or gladiators.

Thru examples of runaway destruction of Thebes, Carthage, Constantinople, and the Aztecs "The book—and this conversation—charts how and why some societies choose to utterly destroy their foes and warns that similar wars of obliteration are possible in our time."

These songs age better with the mock-sinister lyrics removed. P.S. I am not part of the growing "Brian" cult, but appreciate his eclecticism. Not the first time I have featured tanpura here, something you can load on a tablet and synth-drone yourself to sleep.

I was surprised to learn that squirrels host the same bubonic plague flea as rats. Someone recently died in NM of plague. A lot of people are attracted to squirrels and want to hand feed them etc, unlike rats. A surprising number of folks think reptiles are cute to handle. Nih.gov sez:

The story behind the images by Goldsworthy:

Timgad: idyllic retirement village on African frontier... P.S. don't miss my previous posted video, a mere 2.5 minute atmospheric gem.