Faustus
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Posts posted by Faustus
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The cream of Australia's population did not hesitate, but immediately volunteered to fight a war on the other side of the world, which we could just as easily have dismissed as a "European war, irrelevant to us". As far as a national identity is concerned, I'd rather have one that shows we are loyal to our brothers and willing to fight for an ideal, rather then one that shows us as disloyal cowards.
So much for remaining objective lol!
Good show Tobias! It's good to know some of us still stand up for and understand honor, duty, courage, and a willingness to risk all for a noble cause and a national purpose.
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I wanted to see the Meteor shower too, though sadly the weather wouldn't permit it. I enjoy stargazing as well, and I've had a fondness for astronomy since I was very young. Too bad the weather hasn't allowed us the chance to see anything.
Here we are again a year later. The most famous meteor shower of all
peaks the morning of Tuesday August 12. And here's where to look:
The "radiant" is in the North East and just above Capella (in Auriga which
looks like a house resting on its side) which is the first 1st magnitude star
nearest the pole-star. The Pleiades "asterism" will be further to the right.
The Perseids result when Earth runs into debris ejected over the eons by Comet Swift-Tuttle. Under ideal conditions, you may catch up to 90 meteors per hour at its peak. (If it's cloudy the morning of August 12, there may be a good show a day or two before and after.) Viewers can expect to see 60 to 90 meteors per hour under a dark sky after the Moon sets at 1:30 in the early morning, with some of the less spectacular ones not being visible earlier, but the viewing won
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(swiped this bit from another thread)THE BANQUET was divided into 3 parts, the third part, the Secundae mensae, was the dessert, which at large feasts developed into a drinking party, or COMISSATIO.
Would fruit, such as figs (which are very sweet) be in order? Or were cakes sweetened with honey more likely? Something else entirely?
I think they drank their desert, but metaphorically conversation filled the bill.
But further, "....Apicius, the foremost Roman gastronome, included a very elaborate dish among his recipes, served cold, in which the cheese was blended with honey, peppermint, watermelon, vinegar and many other ingredients."
The isle of Samos as being famous for cheesecakes, for which Athenaeus left this recipe, "Take some cheese and pound it, put in a brazen sieve and strain it, then add honey and flour made from spring wheat and heat the whole together into one mass."
It was customary to serve cheesecakes as wedding cakes from this era and at Argos it was traditional for the bride to" bring little cakes that were roasted, covered with honey, and served to the bridegroom's friends." "
From Greece the Romans spread cheesecake across Europe.
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(Part three)
Although we seem to see the
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It appears that Russia still has a penchant for stirring up trouble with small neighbours, and then declaring a 'just' war to annexe more territory.
Its not quite that simple. Russia doesn't want a neighbour and former member soviet state joining NATO. By hitting the pipeline it would force the west to negotiate from a placatory standpoint instead of throwing their weight around.
"War has started," Vladimir Putin said
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[quote name='Julia C
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What about the Writer's Art? - You Still Can't Write About Muhammad
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"Which historical individual(s), with the emphasis being on Rome, do you think have been praised or maligned too much?"
I'll start off with Constantine I. I think the only reason he is given the title 'The Great' is due to his promotion of Christianity. It is always forgotten that he was actually a rebel who, although successful, merely began another round of civil wars that the Empire could have done without.
However, I am open to persuasion!!
My pick is
Of the Five Worst Roman Emperors He makes the top 5 list: 1. Caligula, 2. Elegabalus, 3. Commodus, 4. Nero, 5. Domitian
On his Administration
Another devastating fire in A.D. 80 had left Rome badly in need of repair. Domitian responded by erecting, restoring, or completing some 50 structures, including the restored Temple of Jupiter on the Capitol and a magnificent palace on the Palatine. The building program, ambitious and spectacular, was matched by hardly any other emperor. He was also able to maintain the debased currency standard of A.D. 85, which was still higher than the Vespasianic one, until the end of his reign. The economy, therefore, offered a ready outlet for Domitian's autocratic tendencies. There were failures, but he also left the treasury with a surplus, perhaps the best proof of a financially sound administration.
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[1] I wonder wether or not the water collected would have fed into some sort of town-wide supply, and wether sluices operated to allow excess water to run off into the sewers in the event of a storm or sustained rain.
[2] On some of the larger buildings in Pompeii I noticed that the pitch of some roofs faced outwards as well as inwards. I suppose a building with a single, inward sloped roof could only be built to a certain size before the outer wall became too high, so a roof with a 'standard' pitch would be then required (although I notice some roofs are flat).
[3] In Britain and the other Northern provinces there was of course no need to exercise such water conservation methods, and things such as compluvia are not found. However, the Romans, being a traditional lot, still appeared to build houses and other structures with inward facing roofs - most principiae in forts are like this, and also many villas and larger houses in towns. Maybe what started as a water conservation measure became a specific style, and the provincials continued to build in this way so their houses echoed the style of those from the mediterranean?
[4] Although there is an absence of an atrium with confluvium/impluvium, the 'Atrium' - in this case, the cross hall of this small principia - is still in evidence, and the inward facing roof of the collonade has become a style feature rather than the neccesity it started out as. The principia itself is (modelled on) that of a small auxilliary fort in Northern England. Plenty of rain, but the builders see it as important to maintain the mediterranean style.
[1] This would make perfect sense. I have read that little or no excavation has taken place to explore these kinds of possibilities; mostly the excavation has taken place as recent
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Part Two
What can we learn from taking a closer look at how the Romans and their antecedents managed these problems? This then takes us back to Pompeii where so much is preserved or at least has been faithfully restored . On the outside of the Roman domus or villa we see the simplest of roof terminations; simple systems were (and are still) usually the best and require the least attention for maintenance. There we see flat roof tiles (tegulae)*5), and their joint-lapping half-circle covering tiles (imbrices)*6) terminated at the lowest edge (eave) with the simplest of end cap closures (antefixae)*7). These would have kept pests from taking up residence inside the roof itself, and present a more aesthetic view to viewers on the ground.
Once the roof section was visible from the inside of the domus, and perhaps after the refinement of the peristylium was added, we see a different motif example; now we have an amalgam of practical and aesthetic combined with status and culture. For instance on Greek temples*8) like the Parthenon we see an elaboration of carvings at the roof line which we don
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Thanks NN, I have at least two more parts planned, but I may expand a little more than that.
The roof sloping into the interior space allowed for a lower breast wall and more sunlight which was one aim and important, I
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Salve Amici,
More on the water aspect: The Red Planet's wet past an excellent "spot on" clickable/expandable surface image from the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars, or CRISM on the Reconnaissance Orbiter (Astronomy Magazine)
Also "Phoenix looks for ice-rich soil" and Phoenix's falling heat shield links
Faustus
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Part One
A visual aerial survey*1) of Pompeii allows us to see an important aspect of the living style of the residents of Pompeii at the moment of the eruption of Vesuvius; something we can
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In this drunken atmosphere to remember the inevitability of death was both a warning and an invitation to enjoyment. One man drank cheerfully from a silver cup skillfully decorated with gesticulating skeletons. These macabre images added flavor to the wine..... All this, doubtless, led to deep thoughts without, however, causing any loss of appetite.
Interesting!A sort of memento mori.
It adds to his greatness that he needs such a reminiscence, lest he should think himself divine.
Salve
As morbid as this all is, it still delights. It reminds of the practice of students of Zen contemplating of their own dead body, rotting and being eaten by worms, as a way of realizing their own life and mortality.
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When I was talking about cosmic proportions, I was trying to be overtly ironic; my apologies if that wasn't the case.
What precludes the elements of the atmosphere of any planet from reaching any other is called distance.
I'm sure you are correct; the amount of Venusian atmosphere reaching Earth's atmosphere is less than insignificant. But still some must. The amount would no doubt be less than worth arguing about.
Now on the first item, I'm still in need of help; you were being covertly ironic? I'm not sensitive about missing the subtleties of irony.... Apology accepted!
Faustus
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No wonder the statements of the scientific community on GW mean so little to you.
You need not to worry; I can simply not imagine any feasible way Venus' atmosphere would be ever able to have the minimal effect over the climate on Earth.
That's humans' job, after all.
Salve Amici,
Not an expert here, but I do keep up constantly with the subject. There is little doubt that elements from the high atmosphere of Venus reach earth as they are ablated by the solar wind. What would preclude that, or a least mitigate it is the magnetic field of Venus. However Venus is much closer to the sun (67 vs 93 m. miles), and a propitious alignment would no doubt deliver a small quantity of anything in the upper atmosphere to the Earth's own atmosphere. However when we think of planetary quantities just as when we think of geological time frames, these quantities may seem small but may be large by an individual human's "mental" standard. I think that's what the smiley may have implied.
"Venus is sometimes characterized as Earth's 'twin' because of its close proximity in solar system location (~ 0.72 AU heliocentric distance compared to 1.0 AU) and its similar size (~ 6053 km radius compared to - 6371 km radius), but other close resemblances are few. Besides the more obvious atmospheric composition and pressure differences, and the related extreme temperatures at the surface described elsewhere in this volume, events in the history and evolution of the interior of Venus have left that planet with practically no intrinsic magnetic field. The consequences for the space environment and atmosphere are numerous, ranging from the presence of an 'induced' magnetotail in the wake, to an ionosphere and upper atmosphere that are constantly being scavenged by the passing solar wind."
BTW - Even perfect logic can deceive
Faustus
Edit added: NOT VENUS but consider the application of the situation seen here
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/screen/heic0303a.jpg
And
Watch this
for some perspective. You may have seen this before when I first posted it back in May but it still thrills, and the music is a delight. -
I believe that life by nature is an 'All or Nothing' phenomenon. If Mars were at any time able to sustain life, it would now be all over the place. I do not think that the cold conditions on Mars would in themselves have extinguished life. Life has a knack of adapting to, and then slowly changng its environment. the only thing that could really kill it off, in my opinion, is either extremely low or extremely high temperatures. Mars has neither.
I agree with all you said except for the ubiquitousness(?) of it. It has probably been quite balmy on Mars in its past, and once the big chill set in life, if it exists there, probably has retreated to supportable conditions like (but not limited to) the heated water phenomenon in out ocean bottoms. Certain examples exist in Antarctica, but they have at least seasonal reprieves. On Mars below the surface would be a good opportunity for sustained life. Consider the amount of heat escaping from the core of the earth and how it heats subterranean chambers, or the amount of ambient heat just a few feet below the Earth's surface which increases linearly as one goes deeper.
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Woo water is found, all that means to me is that hydogen and oxygen bonded. I doubt DNA was made there.
Few planetary scientists or astronomers are concerned with the discovery of life on Mars, although it would be a high thrill and tell us much about the adaptability of life to harsh environments, but are more concerned with with the sustainability of life being transplanted there.
It would actually be better for us if no life were discovered which we might have an effect on in our future activities on the surface of Mars.
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A US Presidential candidate said in the past few days that by "properly inflating our tires, and tuning up engines" the same amount of oil could be saved that could be produced by all the new drilling of US resources proposed by the other party. SEE HIM HERE
Could these proposals actually accomplish savings of this scale?
What number of automobiles in the US must this policy require to have improperly inflated tires or poorly tuned engines to accomplish this ambitious goal?
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This period equates to the build up toward the Medieval Warm Period, which although produced hotter summers than today, allowed crop bonuses and aided agricultural recovery from the dark ages.
here is a <CHART> graphically showing solar activity during warm and cool climactic conditions of the past 7,500 years. The period discussed here, related to what Caldrail said, has a name; it is called the Medieval Maximum in the terms used by solar astronomers and is (4) on the chart which was somewhat warmer than the Roman Maximum (6). By 1400 the solar activity was falling off precipitously into two side by side very cool periods (3) and (2), respectively the Sporer and Maunder (solar) Minimums.
As can be seen on the chart the Medieval warm period was bracketed by cool climactic extremes, less so before and more so after.
Would it be accurate to suggest that civilization "flourished" during these warm periods and tended to decline or pale during colder climactic periods?
<HERE> is a legend to the whole chart.
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There will always be some who want to enjoy driving from place to place (that doesn't mean irresponsibly) and therefore prefer cars that challenge and reward the driver....It is more the everyday uneccessary driving that millions do, because they cant bear the thought of a walk that is slightly longer than the distance from their armchair to the fridge.
A representative of Friends of the Earth recently stated that if everyone simply kept to speed limits, 1.5 Billion litres of fuel would be saved in Britain every year. That equates roughly to about
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It's just both-ways tolerance.
In the spirit of the thread: Gerard Baker's Barak Obama: The Child - The Messiah - The Obamessiah
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.
Really Kosmo! I found humor in it, all the way to the final scene when Ob enters the plane with his studied grace and half-smile to hosannas of "yes we can!" Reactions may depend a lot on the extremes we have seen here in the media, or have not seen if outside the US.
BTW I also laughed out loud at the scene of "Bush The Ignorant" and the later scene of Bush, with action speeded up, looking a little like a Hitler giving a guided tour to dignitaries. (although I don't agree with it)
It's just both-ways tolerance.Faustus
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I would have thought that after so many years of republicanism, the US electorate would vote for a pig in a suit as long as it was democrat.
Hahahahaha! now that's funny!
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The gift of the Greeks to Romans
I
Roman Roofs Inverted
in Romana Humanitas
Posted
Thanks for that A.
The bolded references of