There's a difference between the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Under the Roman Republic, subject peoples were often ruthlessly exploited by Roman businessmen but the establishment of the Principate under Augustus brought the worst excesses to an end. The Roman Empire was a very benign superpower. The Romans (until the rise of Christianity) was a pluralist society that embraced all the cultures within its borders. Minorities (except Christians) were allowed to practice their beliefs without persecution as long as no-one was injured in the process. In most cases conquered nations were allowed to keep their own form of government, customs and legal systems with the understanding that Roman Law superceded local laws. As the oft quoted lines from Life of Brian go "Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?" - Brought peace.
Wherever the US goes, they rarely bring peace with them. They do bring, however, exploitative and ruthless businessmen.
Mine is back up, all seems to be well. I had nothing to back up, it's just a lots of collected rss feeds and bookmarks. Inconvenient if it doesn't work but hardly suicidal....
I wanted to mod you up but couldn't resist asking a question.
What about space dust?
INAA (I'm not an astro-physicist)but I don't think that the main problem is a lack of speed. Eventually we will work out how to go faster and faster. For me the problem is those little bits of rock and grit in the way. Even at 0.75C travelling in the not-quite empty vastness of space would be like standing in front of a machine gun going full-on.
It's 16 yrs of age in Scotland with or without parental consent. In Denmark it's also 16 yrs for sex and alcohol. Porn too (of any description) is 16 yrs on the principle that if you are old enough to do it then you are old enough to watch it.
I'm not too sure *why* the rule existed but the punishment was that you would be beaten to death by your colleagues armed with big sticks. Yes, indeedio - BEATEN. Not hanged, not beheaded, no lethal injection just big, big sticks.
Unlike their earlier Greek counterparts, Roman soldiers were forbidden from interfering with each other and were also forbidden from interfering with themslves (THAT was a death penalty offence). The chances of any Roman soldier passing up the opportunity of getting jiggy with the local ladies is teeny-tiny.
I am sort of ashamed to admit it but I clicked on the YouTube links and got the message "The owner of this video does not allow video embedding. Please watch this video on YouTube.com"
Now what was that about copyright and permission again?
Please do not confuse 'England' with 'Britain'. It's BRITAIN and France, not "England and France". They kept Germany under a food blockade and coerced them into signing the treaty. I did not dispute that Germany was weakened in late 1918/early 1919. I merely pointed out that they did not LOSE WWI and they didn't.
armistice (är'm-sts) n. A temporary cessation of fighting by mutual consent; a truce.
An armistice was agreed in 1918, not a surrender, conditional or otherwise.
That came later. The war concluded with Germany still occupying French territory. They had not been beaten. The armistice was negotiated from a position of "let's stop fighting". However AFTER the fighting had stopped the US held an election that swept away Woodrow Wilson's power base and left him powerless to stop the French and British rounding on Germany. The French were absolutely paranoid about Germany as their traditional anti-German counterweight, Imperial Russia, no longer existed. The French decided that Germany should be territorially emasculated, made to bear the blame for the war (that Austria-Hungary started) and made to pay exorbitant war reparations. In Britain, David Lloyd George had been elected thanks to a "Hang the Kaiser" campaign and came into the treaty negotiations on the side of France. Germany did not expect a 'treaty' as harsh as the one they were presented with. At no point were the Germans consulted over the treaty - they were just told to sign it. The French and British had restricted aid to Germany and the Germans themselves had run out of allies. Their normal allies the Austro-Hungarian Empire had collapsed as had the Ottoman Empire. The French and British governments threatened Germany with a resumption of hostilities if the signature was refused. Germany had no option but to sign.
So Germany did not lose the war, they lost the peace.
ahh, but history is fascinating. I get the point about the repeated lie becoming the truth. One of my favourite questions is...
Who won the First World War?
Most US/UK/French people asked would say "We did". The 'truth' is that no-one won WWI: it was a draw. All combatants agreed to stop fighting on 11/11/1918. The fact that Germany was royally shafted afterwards is a separate issue. The lie that Germany was beaten in WWI persists to this day and says quite a lot about our own need for self-validation. History is not about dates and battles, these are the punctuation in the story of our time on Earth. The real history is what lies between them - power, money, greed, lust, fear, anger and struggle. All good stuff and quite entertaining.
Slashdot Mirror
minerals don't osmose, osmosing is something that water does.
"Hey, check this out - I've discovered a black hole....."
It's a pity US law is based on English law and not on Scots law, maybe life in the USA would be less complicated.
There's a difference between the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Under the Roman Republic, subject peoples were often ruthlessly exploited by Roman businessmen but the establishment of the Principate under Augustus brought the worst excesses to an end. The Roman Empire was a very benign superpower. The Romans (until the rise of Christianity) was a pluralist society that embraced all the cultures within its borders. Minorities (except Christians) were allowed to practice their beliefs without persecution as long as no-one was injured in the process. In most cases conquered nations were allowed to keep their own form of government, customs and legal systems with the understanding that Roman Law superceded local laws. As the oft quoted lines from Life of Brian go "Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?" - Brought peace. Wherever the US goes, they rarely bring peace with them. They do bring, however, exploitative and ruthless businessmen.
In the UK you can't sign away statutory rights like the right to a fair trial and so on. No 'agreement' that tries to remove such a right is valid.
Mine is back up, all seems to be well. I had nothing to back up, it's just a lots of collected rss feeds and bookmarks. Inconvenient if it doesn't work but hardly suicidal....
I wanted to mod you up but couldn't resist asking a question.
What about space dust? INAA (I'm not an astro-physicist)but I don't think that the main problem is a lack of speed. Eventually we will work out how to go faster and faster. For me the problem is those little bits of rock and grit in the way. Even at 0.75C travelling in the not-quite empty vastness of space would be like standing in front of a machine gun going full-on.
this is /. - if they prevent poor satires there'd be nothing left
...lehrverage....
And how exactly would skeins of hoverbots improve the quality of life for humankind?
nothing was seen here, move along..
Most amusing.
btw - how do I get the key from the tent in Trinity.......?
I apologise if someone else has raised this point..
Why are some people intent on making Homo Sapiens obsolete?
1 Build humanoid robot
2 build silicon-based superbrain
3 ??????
4 Extinction!
Idiots.
It's 16 yrs of age in Scotland with or without parental consent. In Denmark it's also 16 yrs for sex and alcohol. Porn too (of any description) is 16 yrs on the principle that if you are old enough to do it then you are old enough to watch it.
I surely can't be the only one bored rigid by this 'debate'
RIAA steel-tip jackboots approaching
Folk: Something sad happened to Johnny-o and then he sailed from Liverpool, never to return-o
I'm not too sure *why* the rule existed but the punishment was that you would be beaten to death by your colleagues armed with big sticks. Yes, indeedio - BEATEN. Not hanged, not beheaded, no lethal injection just big, big sticks.
Unlike their earlier Greek counterparts, Roman soldiers were forbidden from interfering with each other and were also forbidden from interfering with themslves (THAT was a death penalty offence). The chances of any Roman soldier passing up the opportunity of getting jiggy with the local ladies is teeny-tiny.
I am sort of ashamed to admit it but I clicked on the YouTube links and got the message "The owner of this video does not allow video embedding. Please watch this video on YouTube.com"
Now what was that about copyright and permission again?
or we may find Kevin Costner on a raft. I'm not sure which one is scarier.
Please do not confuse 'England' with 'Britain'. It's BRITAIN and France, not "England and France". They kept Germany under a food blockade and coerced them into signing the treaty. I did not dispute that Germany was weakened in late 1918/early 1919. I merely pointed out that they did not LOSE WWI and they didn't.
armistice (är'm-sts) n. A temporary cessation of fighting by mutual consent; a truce.
An armistice was agreed in 1918, not a surrender, conditional or otherwise.
Which wikipedia article? What's your point?
That came later. The war concluded with Germany still occupying French territory. They had not been beaten. The armistice was negotiated from a position of "let's stop fighting". However AFTER the fighting had stopped the US held an election that swept away Woodrow Wilson's power base and left him powerless to stop the French and British rounding on Germany. The French were absolutely paranoid about Germany as their traditional anti-German counterweight, Imperial Russia, no longer existed. The French decided that Germany should be territorially emasculated, made to bear the blame for the war (that Austria-Hungary started) and made to pay exorbitant war reparations. In Britain, David Lloyd George had been elected thanks to a "Hang the Kaiser" campaign and came into the treaty negotiations on the side of France. Germany did not expect a 'treaty' as harsh as the one they were presented with. At no point were the Germans consulted over the treaty - they were just told to sign it. The French and British had restricted aid to Germany and the Germans themselves had run out of allies. Their normal allies the Austro-Hungarian Empire had collapsed as had the Ottoman Empire.
The French and British governments threatened Germany with a resumption of hostilities if the signature was refused. Germany had no option but to sign.
So Germany did not lose the war, they lost the peace.
ahh, but history is fascinating. I get the point about the repeated lie becoming the truth. One of my favourite questions is...
Who won the First World War?
Most US/UK/French people asked would say "We did". The 'truth' is that no-one won WWI: it was a draw. All combatants agreed to stop fighting on 11/11/1918. The fact that Germany was royally shafted afterwards is a separate issue. The lie that Germany was beaten in WWI persists to this day and says quite a lot about our own need for self-validation.
History is not about dates and battles, these are the punctuation in the story of our time on Earth. The real history is what lies between them - power, money, greed, lust, fear, anger and struggle. All good stuff and quite entertaining.