caesar novus

Wow, the swedes and poles look insular on that venn diagram too. Swedes only mixed with north german and poles mixed a bit with czechs, in spite of the surrounding activity. We have to be careful because most of these flags come from mutations tens of thousands of years ago when they lived elsewhere i think. The italians only mixed with iberians... not with french, and the north italians only with portugal?! That might account for a slight arab look of south italians? I guess dna transfer is driven by choice of mates rather than a meeting of groups. But environment and epigenetics can cause subdifferentiation. Epigenetics is nondna, quick adapting inheritance written up quite well in wikipedia. The po valley coment brought to mind the book italian neighbors by tim parks, where he speculated their eternal winter fogs changed the nature and look of residents compared to nearby mountain italians. I know that decades of sun exposure can make someone look like a different type, and even occupation can do this. Many pilots carry that hawklike vigilant look from peering at distant features hour after hour. Maybe po residents carry the reverse effects after centuries of living in a white room.

I am only in the middle of the book, but will try to give a more coherent snapshot here. The review link i posted above is hard to beat though, and indicates what i hadnt known... that it was widely received as a highpoint of the authors work and among travelwriters and among the general reading public. Paul Theroux

Wow, here is a followup to the above tepid review. I think that med. book was botched by the writer, and the market may still be open for reflective account of travelling around romes onetime lake. I believe thiat book was a reluctant attempt to cash in on a sure-thing topic in order to pay for his divorce and the new apple of his eye. Contrast that to his previous book during the despair of collapsing marriage and hypochondria about cancer http://www.troyparfitt.com/536 . Wow again, i had Paul Theroux

It might have been in the gothic hall of the history museum http://www.historiska.se/home/exhibitions/thegothichall/ or nearby. I believe among other things they had a medieval life size sculpted trio of the father, mother, and wife of jesus according to the english caption. They seemed to smile like celebrities saying... yeah, we're the jesus team; party on. I was puzzled, but rushed on to greener pastures. The upper floors of the army museum had wowed me, and raised my expectations for finding hidden gems. Mmm, the ethnic cafe in the ethnology museum was another serendipitous pleasure.

There is a museum in stockholm with rooms and rooms of large colorful wooden statues and carvings from old churches, probably local. Some depict mary magdalene, and the english labels seemed to tell me that she or one of the other figures was the wife of jesus. The most striking thing was the females were shown as jolly and exuberant like at a party. I cant remember which of stockholms 70 or so museums this was in, except it was quite central yet obscure and unvisited. I didnt miss many of them on my multi day museum card.

Many us museums accept free tickets for last saturday of sept, if printed out from smithsonian site below. Only one venue per person this year, so the site will show you the choices. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/museumday/ticket/

That sounds like a romanticized spin. In an anthropology course, we studied the dry academic collections of every scrap of info at initial contact, like from the inobtrusive meanderings of trappers that didnt alter the culture yet. Iirc, the iroquois women specialized in the art of extreme torture of rival indian captives, with the goal of keeping them alive for many days of maximized suffering. The merciful death for the brave came at a late stage, like when all your skin was already peeled off.

There is a lecture/demo tour on greek music that has maybe 18 stops to go, and you might want to look for it. I saw the first, but cannot see the rest of the itinerary, maybe because google is limiting search to my gps area. Or if you read greek, maybe consult the web page of Dr. Nikos Xanthoulis Former Principal Trumpet Player Greek National Opera and Associate Researcher in the Academy of Athens. His talk was nice, but his lyre playing drove part of his audience out the door. I thought of neros audiences who had to suffer that for many hours. He played hadrians favorite music, and i enjoyed the roman connection even if it was with a hellenophile gone astray. What i liked was the greek trumpet playing, and it was by a pro who has several classical albums out with modern trumpet. His described it a bit differently than http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salpinx and had an extremely long salpinx modeled after the one in boston museum (legally acquired, he kindly noted). To me it looked like a take apart blowgun vastly longer than head high, but reduceable shorter as depicted with amazon female warriors or down to nothing into briefcase size. The sound was amazing for such a narrow thing... very rich and professional.

They have introduced a new course http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=3810 The Other Side of History: Daily Life in the Ancient World Professor Robert Garland, Colgate UniversityPh.D., University College London including not only Greek but Roman stuff like 23 Being Roman 24 Being a Roman Slave 25 Being a Roman Soldier 26 Being a Roman Woman 27 Being a Poor Roman 28 Being a Rich Roman 29 Being a Roman Celebrity 30 Being a Roman Criminal 31 Relaxing Roman Style 32 Practicing Roman Religion 33 Being Jewish under Roman Rule 34 Being Christian under Roman Rule As I type it shows a high price, even with 70% reduction. Priority code 62906 may increase it to 75%. Unfortunately I had a 90% one that expired. Maybe have your library order one. I suppose this will have a lot of utopian victimology whining. Just remember to compare life of the poor in vs out of Roman realm... no worse being inside Rome and at least you have aspirational examples of success to savor.

The Pillars of Hercules: A Grand Tour of the Mediterranean ...a travelogue written by the American travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux, published 1995... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pillars_of_Hercules_(book) Somehow i had missed this account of journeying around the ex roman empire's lake by this famously grumpy writer. Better known for detailing the indignities and inspirations of long third world journeys, he promised to fill in some rather more civilized areas i had missed. He did and i'm glad i read it, and i recommend it with some reservations: Except for being uncharacteristically thrilled by Venice and hungry for more of Roman Ephesus (neither of which he describes) he avoids monuments like the plague. His head is still a 1960's anti establishment protester (he was thrown out of the peace corps for trying to overthrow his host government), and ancient rome or egypt or many modern govts seem to only represent implacable opponents to utopia to him. It amused me how in albania he tried to patronize widespread apparent victims living in squalor, and asked what oppressive institution had vandalized their noble lives. They told them they did it themselves months ago to snub the regime, and were proud of it. Iirc they damaged a roman triumphal gate, as well as all businesses etc. Someplace else a person he berates with innuendo-coated questions hits the nail on the head complaining that he expects unrealistic utopia. He is quite dismissive and brief about ordinary spain, france, and greece, except for the edgier regions of corsica and cyprus. Of course he cant help but be charmed by italy, although only by a mishap did he later also visit its west coast and spared us a few words about its dazzle. And after surviving croatia under seige (he is oblivious to the roman palace in split) the trip gets all disjointed in time and space. By the way i recently read about unprecedented ww2 atrocities the croats did to the serbs(?) which probably inspired the carnage payback this author assumed was gratuitous. He next retraces and skips all around, in luxury and tramp cruise ships besides his usual train and bus but not airplane. Grouses about israel which sounded quite nice, and raves about a barren tunisian island which sounded like a prison. Avoids juicy nearby archeology in africa, and a war in algeria leaves him seeing less of north africa than i have. He only visits top writers in egypt and morroco since his brother translates them... little else of the region. Oh, he bums around syria with his usual ridicule of many folks he encounters, and interviews the richest family in istanbul. But somehow the account leads your appetite on... at least a negative view gives sharp focus vs a fuzzy sentimental whitewash. I now relive the spirit of the trip using mediterranean internet radio stations. From spanish flamenco to croatian folk music... actually the latter is quite delightful, and i regret not buying the cd of a group i saw playing in a dubrovnik folk museum.

A great source for Sicily travel info is the local expert vagabonda in http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowForum-g187886-i343-Sicily.html such as whether a particular rural bus route is reliable or not. I wish i took their advice about favoring buses over unreliable trains there, although i did enjoy a very long walk to an archeo site which they advised me against. What do you mean you are limited by no car license... since when are northern Italian rules respected in Sicily? Heck, just rent and pilot a helicopter... or maybe a Vespa anyway Anyway you can benefit by locals ignoring the anti terrorist rules against no unlocked free wifi. The Norman mosaics are amazing... for them and other museums be prepared for multiple attempted visits... they will be unexpectedly closed at any given time. In Palermo avoid the gritty main streets in favor of the colorful meandering alleys which are more pedestrian friendly. View satellite photos of the place for hidden parks and villas. The botanical and English gardens are well known gems. Guzzle fresh squeezed blood orange juice and rose petal gelato. On the boot i only visited that armpit Bari - unfortunately not Lecce. I would be tempted to return via night ferry Palermo to Naples with its infinite wealth of Roman sites vs tired Greek ones in Sicily.... mmm, I had the best risotto in my life on that cheap ferry. You should enjoy this trip

The next frontier of roman archeology surely must be on the moon. Material is regularly knocked off the moon and lands on the earth http://articles.cnn.com/2004-07-30/tech/meteorite.moonII_1_moon-rocks-meteorite-space-rock?_s=PM:TECH . If you don't think that path is reversible, google origin of the moon... most of the moon is thought to be knocked off parts of the earth. Who is up for the challenge? Let's apply for a grant...

Ps, here is a link on syria archeo looting including a palmyra war damage thing you can click on. Syria freedom seekers have of course been left twisting in the wind by the useless un and timid west. Today russian warships arrive to consolidate the existing tyranny. Reminds me of the way a weak kennedy actually incited khrushchev to try to take over west berlin, until jfk learned to show backbone. New accounts suggest even the cuban missle crises was only meant to be a bargaining chip for west berlin. http://www.gadling.com/2012/06/06/destruction-looting-of-syrias-ancient-heritage-continues-repo/

you teased us without revealing the runoff catchment theory. I hope they have considered wells into entrapped fossil water, which is so abundant in dry parts of africa and even the us. The norwegians may have a bias in hoping for some wiley sustainable technique that is supposed to shame us moderns. The opposite is often true, such as evidence of ecoside by early south american indian agriculture. May not take a deep well... i got stranded in the dessicated center of the sahara once due to noshow french tour leader. Water was widely abundant at or near the surface due to lush climate a jillion years ago. I subsisted on a bunch of dry powder lemonade mix i had brought, instead of food. I guess algeria has been massively pumping this ancient reservoir down, but some other factor could have led to disappearance of palmyra water table, such as a tilting of rockbed layers.

First a diagnosis, then 2 possible solutions I suppose the trigger was Clintons little scandal at end of term. This allowed a rightward movement of GOP because they could worry less about losing formerly undecided centrists. Then it ping-pongs thru history with the ignored/alienated centrists next looking left which allows a more leftest DEM to win. Hopefully these swings dampen down when parties start thinking about long term success. But someone made a good case that when party nominations abandoned calculated backroom tactics for transparent democracy (not that long ago), nominations naturally become more populist and extremist. I am up to Thatcher and Reagan in a course http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=4812 Conservative Tradition, Taught By Professor Patrick N. Allitt, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, now Emory University. He seems to have no unbridled love for UK or USA conservatives (north British accent) yet said the genial Reagan softened the social side of his conservatism based on feedback of the whole country, unlike what's done today. For instance he stopped action on his pro family, anti-abortion agenda and even nominated a pro abortion supreme court person. Contrast that with divisive Bush court nominations (IIRC), or today's force feeding of the widely unloved Obam-care. He says Reagan had to stand firm on economic issues, as did the more combative Thatcher, because the US and especially UK were widely recognized to be in a self-inflicted economic death spiral. But I note that like Greece or Spain protests today, citizens who originally got outsized entitlements and protections by political means (rather than thru merit) will also try to remedy it by the same political means with disproportionate noise. So I see that as more of an artificial theatrical conflict rather than a real voter-backed one... witness Wisconsin voters recently going against the shrill press-backed entitlement sector. Another point by him is the US GOP has been a fragile combination of strange bedfellows - the libertarian conservatives and the cultural conservatives. When this coalition breaks down the party collapses for a number of years. That gets to my point where it can be a stretch for an individual to fit his square peg into a round party hole. But if the 2 parties evolve to demographics wisely, it can work great and reduce conflict. =================== I have a theory that modern left and right are means to the same end; they just have way different tolerance for unintended or perverse consequences vs pace. One side wants fast progress regardless of the friendly fire casualties - they will attempt patch ups later, or at least the carnage is for a sacred cause. Another side wants to pace progress as cautiously as it takes to avoid letting imperfect humans vandalize what is good and unpredictably fragile in their rush towards utopia. It isn't true that conservatives purely cling to the past; they may have been aghast at Adam Smith's ideas of free markets at first, but warmed up to it once shown it generally broke down the bad rather than the useful aspects of feudalism or whatever. Which takes me to my idea to consolidate these conflicting approaches. I can point to the Monte Carlo algorithm of optmizing things, which is provably excellant. I worked on a close rival approach and didn't learn the rather simple mathmatics of M.C. but I know the principles. First of all, we can throw out the extreme left and right position of drastic or no change. No change gets us no optimization. Drastic structured change is mathematically provable as grossly suboptimal for NP complete or NP hard problems, which doubtless characterizes life-goal types of problems. What works the best (recognizably world-class... at least a while back) was a sort of evolutionary approach. In a computer simulation you change things stepwise, but not strictly toward the goal because that gets you stuck at suboptimal. You must inject some randomness (temporarily backtracking away from the "good") and you must control the stepsize (disruption) in a certain pattern so that bad side effects can negate the move. This is well studied and understood, and leads to something close to optimal in a finite (but not short) period of time. I'm rusty in this area and maybe am abusing terminology, but I think it is a metaphor that could lead left and right to work together better and be reassured their different priorities won't be extinguished. Use such numbers to control rate and direction of law change, and viola? =================== Also I've been meaning to introduce a book/video on a similar synthesis of left and right instincts, but never got around to finishing it. A psychology guy wanted to write a book to explain to fellow intelligensia how the right may appear ghastly, but perhaps meant well. He studied traditional (conservative) India, fell in love with it, and came up with a universal spectrum of values that were mostly shared by right and left, but a few prioritized different or ignored. If the left and right can just realize each side is innocently blind to the most cherished issue of the other side, rather than knowingly despising those issues... at least both sides can start respecting each other rather than hating, and maybe try to not vandalize (if not satisfy) the overlooked issues. http://www.booktv.org/Watch/13277/The+Righteous+Mind+Why+Good+People+Are+Divided+by+Politics+and+Religion.aspx "The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion" by Jonathan Haidt

I hope the foresight of my earlier post will permit me some further topic drift. I have heard of Italy specifically projecting a shortfall of tourists in next few months. Also, the many hostel-like properties owned by the vatican are facing losing their tax free status, perhaps giving a last opportunity for the so called monastery or convent stays at a big discount (there is a web site for these properties, their stated drawback being night lockup of front door). So lets brainstorm about a visit, maybe just after the heat of the summer. A bargain for ourselves and more eyes on the monuments to scare away statue thieves or whatever. My brain is just stuck on Appia Antica, and the Terricola train station which saves you from chaotic bus travel. I mentioned the best route if you (preferably on Sunday morning) use it to walk Antica inbound towards the city. But walking outbound should take you by some of the aquaducts and monuments that you normally only see in videos and pictures. You could return by train too, although no ticket seller and most trains don't stop. Looking on google maps, there appears to be a shortcut to the outer part of Antica from the train station. Ideally you would jump the tracks and cut northeast thru a field, but there are likely fences. If you can walk along the tracks southeastward without getting shot by aformentioned sentry, then you can jog briefly north on Appia Attica to Appia Antica. Walk it east thru countryside, and turn back when hitting congestion. Hopefully you can soldier on past the train station and hit the inbound sites. A famous house (of 2 brothers) only opens their A.A. gates in the afternoon, but I believe the local racetrack site closes in the afternoon (catch22). The first deli you see on the left marks the end of interesting part (and makes great sandwiches). If you have a ticket for the nearby monuments (or even baths of caracula...) you will get access to a reasonable bathroom. I'm thinking of not shooing urinaters away from a certain unguarded monument, because that's Italy's business, and maybe in our old age we will need to stop there too. Walking further into Rome is hard because the roads get too narrow for walkers alongside cars. If you still are up for more, there is a walkable route to the left that goes near the monument complex for 300 or so massacred in ww2. The 90-something commander responsible is still under house arrest in Rome. I recently found he didn't just gather random citizens, but a few were actually involved in bravely blowing up parading troops. From there it is walkable into Rome, but not pretty. You could stumble on towards baths of Caracalla, because you probably got a combo ticket at A.A. sites good for that too.

Oh, Torricola is the name of the train stop embedded in a military base and a reasonable walk to via appia just beyond the area frequented by tourists. No need for directions because the sinister signs line the only way out. Road ends in a t with larger road, where you go right and cock your ear for small cars going full throttle. If two come from oppo directions, be ready to throw yourself into the muddy ditch. The next intersection is appia where you go left to get back towards center. Hmmm, maybe i can get back there myself if things get worse. I was already tempted to protect one roman monument there which female walkers use as a urinal due to the privacy it kind of affords... the men dont seek much privacy. Urine has got to be bad for old roman bricks, but i suppose its less risky to kick out the peeing cats rather than woman. But i could post signs...

Sounds like you are agreeing what i was trying to say in brief. Southern demos were broadly different to northern demos. They cannot share a prez candidate that represents both, so dysfunctional. They can negotiate well with other party in congress, but sometimes their own party can be a hidden enemy so geniality can be a symptom of party system failure. At some point in a political system, conflicts have to face off. With no parties it will be in the congress type of place, likely heated. With a many party parliament, conflict can get settled with backroom coalition forming... it would be very interesting to create graphics showing how such coalition trial and failure brought hitler to power... it really worked as designed rather than being a fluke. The evolved two party system in us can be a great conflict resolver when working correctly. Most conflict will be decentralized into the individual decision to pick a party, which may be a painful fit. With only two parties, they are incentivized toward the center to gain undecideds. Then the tendancy will be toward genial party faceoffs, aside from outlying individuals. In the last two admins, it has broken down due to quirks pushing one side away from center, then similar counterreaction. The two admins beforehand were centrists. I heard the most interesting commentary about eu conflict resolution by the leader of libertas party named after roman goddess. He wanted top eu officials more accountable and democratic, then there would be a solid system that could choose between transfer payments or bankruptcy (he preferred latter) with a sense of representational legitimacy. I guess he is an eccentric irishman. His model wowed me... the us federalist papers, which explained the reasoning to reluctant us states why to form a union and reassures tbat decentralization will be maintained whenever possible. The us supreme court has recently forgotten these, and merrily brings on a tyranny of the fashionable federal. Oh, a delightful sidelight is those papers are all signed by the roman republic founder publius, a persona chosen to top those of opposition papers signed by cato and brutas pen names.

Everyone posts problems, but i guess its up to us royalty to give solutions. An italian military base, which you walk by if use the train to access outer reaches of via appia, has the most intimidating keep out signs i have ever seen. Take a picture of its flourescent image of a sentry rifleman locking eyes with you and intently squeezing off a round at your forehead. Make a hundred copies and stick them up around all sites you wish to protect... don't worry about permission. I would prioritize greek sites of the roman colonial period, or roman italy itself. At least some robbers might switch to unmarked sites just to be safe. Or maybe you can get a law passed like publious in the founding of roman republic, where citizens can execute bad guys without trial for the worst crimes, like pretending to be king (oops). I took a picture of a sentry sign, but it turned out fuzzy. Ps. Travel to italy and greece is probably very affordable now. I went during a terror scare for about half the usual air and (locally negotiated) hotel price .

Some historian of the us congress talked about the ups and downs of conflict. Of course there were early periods where physical violence appeared. Some of the smoothest periods of mutual respect were during times when hard alcoholic drinking was common... adversaries would get smashed in the same bars in a kind of forced socialization. This was not that long ago... maybe the practice needs to be updated with a basket of extasy pills in their lobby. Iirc the historian spoke of another factor reducing conflict that was dysfunctional... at some point national issues have to be energetically confronted, and in the us this comes with a final two party face off. But after the civil war the party of the left had strong elements of the right in the south, and the party of the right had a left wing in the north. While this mix allowed more fluid negotiations, it meant the voters for a party werent getting true advocates at a national level.

A roman oil lamp from gaul 100ad was discovered in jamestown virginia usa a few years ago in soil context definately dating its placement there to 1607. So shall we assume thats when that roman colony expired or was killed off? Unfortunately that was also the place and time of britains first colonial landing... something this forums readers must know in their hearts was purely coincidental... http://www.dailypress.com/features/family/dp-61191sy0jun19,0,6998506.story

http://www.technologyreview.com/featured-story/427628/the-library-of-utopia/ describes a new Harvard approach and: With very interesting post-1923 comments by jf292, which may possibly apply to movies as well:

Yeah, but climb those buttresses almost all the way up palantine to find newly dug up spot of neros supposed banquet room. It is near church s sabastiano and temple of elagabalus iirc and we have a topic here with pix and maybe video of it. So look from there way down to the valley with the colluseum and back up the distant slope where neros octagon room is and you have not only huge extent but vast changes in altitude, which i dont see represented in the graphics. In texas someone built a replica of the forbidden city in a cow field. It wasnt full scale and attracts limited tourists. I would really like to see full scale model of neros house, esp since i didnt score a tour of the octagon part before closure. Maybe someone here has pix of octagon rooms etc.

Nice... yaay darius. But thats not expanding the estimated extent if they still think that round structure recently dug up and displayed way up the pal hill is the rotating roofed banquet room. Anyway to be sure i have enough room for my private lifesize replica of that complex, ill have to warm up some bulldozers and get out the dynamite.

Much parma cheese was only dented, not lost. News sez they hold a cheap firesale, and i wish i could get a discounted cartload. Cheese makes my sinuses clog, but i found online source of the best antihistimine... chlorphenerimine maleate in slow release tabs allow my only indulgence away from veganism.