caesar novus

My beloved macbook pro just melted down after 4 years of hard labor. Just ordered a new one from best buy - I like their "opened box" discounts and ease of returns.

Holidays may bring slack time for watching videos or listening. I have come across some under-subscribed fascinating history channels: https://www.youtube.com/@frontlinewhispers https://www.youtube.com/@historyonmaps examples:

I had trouble too. After reading about a huge number of passwords posted for sale on the dark web, I got notified that someone broke in and was trying to change my password. Also I would lose my cursor and freeze on youtube while my device got hot. I guess two step verification, which I hate, saved me in the end.

These 2 songs seem endearing because the classic pop artists play straightforwardly rather than in trademark avant garde posturing. Lou Reed does "Rock N Roll" while blurring the creepy lyrics. I actually bumped into him in Rome days after his concert. He was accompanied by an exquisite supermodel rather than some satanic transvestite more befitting his reputation. David Bowie accompanies him for "Waiting for the Man". I saw him in a small concert on the east coast, whose edgy vibe influenced him more than the California scene.

https://ancientromelive.org/about/ is fundraising for it's educational activities, and has set up a tax deductible way for Americans to do this thru nonprofit https://ancientromelive.org/support/. But they don't mention an especially painless way to do this which is a Transfer-On-Death provision to financial accounts such as retirement or bank. I have done this easily online, allocating various percentages to people and non-profits, with backups in case some recipients expire. As I understand this is put into action with death certificate long before probate and wills, and can be updated without witnesses (but confirm all independently) To set up you will need the EIN number, and the exact name of American Institute...

Here are many glorious Roman mosaic images. From bing on laptop, I like the way you can click on one, hit expand, then rapidly cycle thru the hundred or so with right arrow key in near full screen: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=roman+mosaic+book&form=HDRSC3&first=1 https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=roman+mosaic&form=HDRSC3&first=1

Above YT short is so devoid of any info that it actually seems too long. Here is a bit better one I posted earlier, but I would appreciate seeing another vid that did more justice to cool Roman mosaics. There are probably fine coffee table books on the subject in landfills.

These short "licks" are best played in loop mode (summer madness - kool & the gang):

His son continued ruling an additional 8 or 9 years with moderate success, so Rome plodded onward:

Pressure mounting due to sensing the crumbling resolve of western civilization, with it's woke readiness to appease in a spirit of suicidal empathy. Egypt has long been on the brink of radical islamic takeover (think Afghan buddha demolition or Syria Roman destruction), and suffered thousands of artifacts looted from museums and archeo sites in 2011 revolution. Still there are a six figure surfeit of items remaining under the watch of tiresome Z. Hawass, whose "reinstatement sparked protests from museum workers and archaeologists, who struck in April 2011 demanding his removal over alleged cronyism and suppression of dissent within the antiquities sector" according to https://grokipedia.com/page/Zahi_Hawass Let's stiffen our spine and preserve selected hieroglyphs and Greek sculptures in the 1st rather than exclusively 2nd or 3rd world! Look how much Egypt benefited by the stone laying around France and England for scholars to eventually solve the puzzle. Think how many hieroglyphs have meanwhile been sandblasted in Egypt. Egypt is awash in same-theme artifacts as is Greece in same-theme artifacts. Maybe they should instead ask for donation of artifacts from outside-civilizations for local museums for diversity and education. (Athens does have a cool Hellenic Air Force museum if you are need a change of pace or the regulars are on strike.) Following graph shows world bank estimate of negative Egyptian political stability:

4 years into restoration of medieval tower, it partially collapsed. When rescue workers gesture they have found a survivor, the cheers of crowd appear to trigger further collapse which results in death of worker. Italian news site full of finger pointing that may take a while to sort out. I can't embed dramatic video due to busy factor, so click on https://youtu.be/VuolVj6K0Yk?si=RhGm7pXfvDvmQ83W or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsYSCGaWWbA

A fine visualization of "Six Pianos" by Steve Reich

Arrgh, at least there is still hope they enscribe more than just the usual niceties.

You've heard umpteen announcements of DNA findings that mythbust this or that human migration assumption, but how does it now fit together? Here is a sparkling clear and engaging lecturer that does that. BTW he identified another unknown kind of human in Asia, but has assertively avoided it being named in the Latin hierarchy to prevent false assumptions. Unfortunately his name kinda seems unpronounceable to english speakers. Anyway, modern man spread out, often finding other types of humans at their destinations. There may have been some genetic mixture, but along the way rather at their destination where the older humans were starting to die off, etc. You may want to skip over the first 10 minutes of lecture niceties:

Ok, Coarelli estimates C-Max at 200m x 600+ vs C-Var only 125m x 565. He notes C-Var is only a modern name, and riffs about the 4 horse chariot races. There was possibly something about the aqueduct serving C-Var being longer than the one for C-Max that may have gotten me mixed up, but these hardcopies have too fine print for me to want to drill further.

An hour of really artful slumber jazz (Bill Evans piano):

I had that video along with his others on my watch later list. I like the paintings (esp maritime) and grand scale of the place (dwarfing anything in Herculaneum). I think access is hard without a vehicle; the Napoli-Sorrento train kind of runs under it in series of tunnels. It looked like the host bicycled to it, judging from anti-chain-snag clips on pants cuff.

2 marimba and 2 vibraphone shortie:

I liked that book so much I bought the hardback. Brutally fine print, some nice diagrams. I wish google books would sell me entire pdf version but I think they offer limited preview. Google books referred me to a great "similar" book I already have: "Rome and Environs - An Archaeological Guide" By Filippo Coarelli translated from Italian. It has a bunch of Varianus discussion that I don't yet have time to follow, so will make page refs here: 209, iii, 21, 210, 211, 549

Another footnote (A New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome p87) lists C Var at only 565m. Back on p83 it describes short life of C Vat before being "invaded" by tombs. Also rich coverage of C Max in it's various modifications. https://books.google.com/books?id=K_qjo30tjHAC&pg=PA87#v=onepage&q&f=false P.S. Some key facts can only be found in the general "circus" writeup of that book p82.

So maybe they vainly built C Var a Roman foot larger, and were punished with a wall crossing a few decades later. Interesting restoration proposal of C Max:

Thanks, that same encylo implies Varianus came centuries later, part of a complex rivaling sprawl of Tivoli. I need to pin down the date of the wall there, which I think cut thru the Circus shortly after construction. Quote: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0006:entry=roma&highlight=varianus :

Things to research: what did the Romans call either of these racetracks? Was "Maximus" a modern misnomer? Why was the Roman wall built in a way to cut thru and reduce Varianus size? I don't think the wall interfered with adjacent Baths of Caracalla (built later?), and tombs of the baker and the pyramid were incorporated and not obliterated by wall. I was unable to rediscover the claim Varianus was larger than Maximus, but haven't tried youtube's new beta ai search that occasionally is offered to me. Also look forward to more coverage of Romans in the ai maintained encyclopedia tool "Grokipedia" which is supposed to eliminate manipulated entries (is there a maximus lobby?). Included videos slightly mis portray the tracks.

My college radio started broadcasting textual song names, and came up with this vibraphone marvel: "Cal's Guajira" The same day I also heard a vibraphone somewhere in a 3+ hour Italian movie including Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg, Fellini. On Kanopy it has english subtitles which seems hard to find on YT: "Boccaccio 70"

So if one wants to fill in the gaps in the Caligula record, can either start with Tiberius years and predict forward or start with Claudius years and predict backwards? I guess humans sometimes do both. As for possible "por*" typo above, that suggests a writer with a lot of faith in dictation software or auto-correct-spelling. May also be interested in new ai machine being incorporated by some health insurance providers next year. Stellarus helps you navigate your insurance authorizations based on 60 databases, which can be a greater mystery than your actual health complaint. Coming to a plan near me; I may give a try to it.