It comes to us, via the Wikimedia Commons, from Frank Martini, a cartographer in the Department of History at the United States Military Academy.

There are two ways of looking at this map--one obvious and one surprising and cheeky--and I will avail myself of both. Bear with me. First the map, and the obvious:

What we see here, obviously, is the western Mediterranean at the time of the Second Punic War (the "Hannibalic War"). Notice Carthage at the tip of northern Africa (in today's Tunisia); Cartagena or "Little Carthage" in Spain, which I mentioned in an earlier post; Gades, which is today's Cadiz; Saguntum (Sagunto), which was ethnically Greek; Massilia (today's Marseilles), also ethnically Greek; Turin (Torino) which was not yet party of "Italy" but part of Gaul; and Ariminum (Rimini), the Roman colony at the edge of their frontier with the Gauls.

Now look at Hannibal's march itself. In 218 BCE he crossed the Pyrenees and into Gaul. The line casually crosses the Rhone, even though this involved one of the most colorful operations in history (of which more in a later post--think elephants on rafts), and then, equally casually, crosses the Alps (of which much, much more in later posts).

You then see where Hannibal won his famous victories, at the Ticinus (more of a skirmish), at the Trebia, at Lake Trasimene and at Cannae. And then you see the line of his path getting.... confusing!

Now the less obvious way of looking at this map: Squint! As you squint, look only at the line of the march. It is a fitting life trajectory for Hannibal himself. It rises early and steeply, peaks, then declines and loses itself completely in a confused and erratic hairball.

How would you draw the map if it were proportionate to time, rather than distance? The entire stretch from Cartagena to Cannae, his greatest victory, took a little over two years. All the twists and turns after Cannae (there were actually far too many to draw on a map) took.... fourteen years!

After those fourteen years, Hannibal lived another nineteen years until he committed suicide, but most of that took place on a different map, in the eastern Mediterranean.

And yet, if you read the existing histories, you would think that 90% of Hannibal's life took place in those initial two years.

Those years are the impostor years. The next thirty-three are the story of how and why he realized that his triumphs had been impostors. And this, in my book, is where his life becomes universal and directly relevant for our own lives today.

Now, let's have even more fun and turn the map around:

Now you have, more or less, the life trajectory of the Romans, in particular Fabius and Scipio, my two other main characters.

Kipling's impostors, you see, visited with them in mirror image.

Why and how did all this happen over all those decades? In exactly the same way as it happens to most of us in our much smaller(-seeming) lives, it turns out. That's why I'm writing a book about it.

I thought about it hard and long, and the long thing that binds all countries is their respective desires to commit to a country.

It does not matter if the country is invaded - like how the people how the American colonies freed themselves from the yolk of a distant government they share a heritage with. Or if the many parts of a country which share a larger identity with each other - as how the Germany was formed from the various municipalities, cities and monarchies numbering more than 100. Or by a common colonial past - like the nation of indonesia which is a collection of all the islands under Dutch rule.

Qualify the commitment

Now the tricky part starts.

How would you qualify a commitment?

The easiest way, is time. But it is unreliable. The Act of Union in 1707 brought England and Scotland under one sovereign but that did not impede the need for autonomous rule that the incoming Blair government in 97 did not use to win votes in their victorious campaign. There is now a Scottish and Welsh parliament, even if they are all part of the same country.

Time is contentious, unless in that time there forms enough cohesive elements to built a national identity from. Italians were never really a country until Garibaldi, they were a collection of cities or under Rome before. But the collective sense they built over the centuries enabled them to carve a nation out of all the principalities and cities.

However in modern Italy there are divisions. The Northern League still is convinced there is a cultural divide that keeps them from being completely Italians. As do the Siciallians.

Nay, however you look at it, the commitment has to be face on some universal truth which would bind free men. Lands don't have people as a requirement to be lands. And you need land for a country. Yet the error lies in thinking that the having of land is what a country is made of.

The Malaysian state

It is worthwhile to revisit the commitment my countrymen made to this country.

Everyone talks about the constitution, but they always negate that the constitution is a derivative of the 1948 federation of Malaya constitution plus with the Reid Commission's proposal.

The key component is that most Malaysians were not party to it. i do not mean all citizens living today. In 1948 to 1957 when laws were crafted - The Malayans living there were not completely party to its construction.

So the commitment we talk about is enforced on Malaysia rather than what Malaysia looked for. Most Malaysian activists opposing British presence were kept away or tried as dangers to the colonial outpost.

Malaysia as a concept cobbles about, because much of what it is has been patronisingly placed on us. By a feudal class.

The reason why we are always divided by race and religion is because the continuous debate all nations undergo as a nation building exercise has been sorely missing in the young and middle years of this country.

Nation building is a collective process, not one dictated or controlled by a few. It is the ill-origin of this nation that most of its inhabitants feel largely aggrieved about. It is the internal contradictions in key concepts and meanings that handicaps this nation.

A nation is its people - not the land. And when swathes of changes and development are carried out with the constant consent of its people in true form, then the country and its institutions are oppressive tools.

The Malaysian people need a new compact, unless that - then the National flag has no takers. And that is far worse than losing land and its people flailing along as the compas goes meeting.

Malaysia is ebbing towards a reason lacking.

i dont think spend 3 days in rome will be sufficient to explore the city, so many thing to do and to be seen. first day we arrived here we just too tired to do anything, we get picked up by rahma, mba dewi and alif after waited in the Ponte Mamolo metro station for mon than 1 hour. The best thing from livin with your friend is you could explore the city from the local insight, and they are also student, they know that to live in europe we have to suffer and sacrifice a lot.

Rome's first night was not really impressive, we just stayed in the room, try to adjust with the host, since they also had a programme to go around Europe but they were worried because they didn't have Italian residence permit, so we told them to avoid the border that may cause them into trouble just like Italian-Switzerland border or German-Netherlands border, we also give them some practical issue like how to travel by train, how to arrange stay in hostel, and how to make travel schedule.

They were very excited when we showed them the Indonesian ingredients that we bought from Netherlands, they also amazed when we said that we have unlimited internet access and when we said that we only have to wait for a month to get our residence permit.

After long talk at night and superb dinner *they made us spaghetti bolognese* finally we get rest at prepared for a 'hell walk'.

The rome walk trip start at 9 in the morning, rome already shows the real heat of summer the walk started at circus maximus *it use to be a horce race stadium* through Colloseum, Roman Forum, Pantheon, Trevi Fountan and end up in Vatican city, that's a long walk on the heat of summer *last time we checked on Vatican  it was 36  degree*. After a long walk we decide to go home, and as usual our host made our dinner, and the menu was... pecel, spice chicken, and rice! after a week I finally ate rice again.. aahhh.. what a relieve...

In the morning all of us are terribly tired, and we woke up late to see the Piramid, and everything that surrounds it we went to the sport center saw the preparation of Democratic Party celebration and we have to caught the train in the station so Mei could home safely huhuhuhuhu byebye Mei..

The night was amazing it's like summer night in Rome we saw the classical music concert *or it's not very classical since Rizky didn't know the author* and go around the colloseum to enjoy the building by night.  The morning after was our time to continue our journey to Florence.

I really thank to our nice host during our stay there Rahma, Mba Dewi, Renar, Alif, I'll never forget this trip.

We sat near the only screen showing the match, which was alongside one showing the Tottenham-Roma friendly from White Hart Lane. 'Oh good,' I thought to myself. 'I can keep one eye on my adopted local side while everyone else watches the Charity Shield.' There were a couple of problems; one was Roma's performance, which was less than great. Being hammered five nil by a side as mediocre as Tottenham is a pretty poor show, even if Spurs were a whole month ahead in their pre-season preparations and they had a few key players missing. But that paled into insignificance when faced with a much bigger issue; a Tottenham twat sitting immediately to our right. This spectacular bell end thought it was a good idea to dribble on loudly about the following things (I've cleaned the language up for those of a more sensitive disposition):

1. This Tottenham team is most definitely superior to the one of north London rivals Arsenal, who I consider to be a bunch of lady's genitalia.
2. We are *this* close to being in the top four.
3. This is our year.
4. Our sulky centre-forward is infinitely more skillful than your less sulky centre-forward
5. These nefarious Italians certainly don't know how to play fair, do they chaps?
6. It was jolly bad form of AC MIlan and Juventus to cheat like they did, maybe if they ban both clubs from every competition forever that would adequately compensate the other clubs.
7. I don't agree with that decision referee, and you can open your sphincter and place that ruling up there, where there is no sunlight.
8. This pre-season friendly result proves that the italian league is essentially worthless, and that the Premier League is most definitely the very best in the world.
9. CAAAAAAHHHHHHHHMMM OOOOOOOONNNN YOOOOOUUUUUU SPUUUUURRRRRSSSSS!

He was an absolute weapon, in other words. Right the way through both matches he sat on his stool while same thing came out of his mouth, leaning forward and squinting at no-one in particular in a way that said; 'you know what I mean don't you mate? It's common sense innit?' It's how I like to imagine Christopher Hitchens writes his columns, only at least he doesn't start every sentence with 'I'll tell you what though Kev,' while waving his pint glass around like like he's pointing at a blackboard. Although come to think of it, he might do. Anyway we've all been around pub experts like this before. Hell we've all probably been that pub expert before. Nevertheless this chap took the biscuit; he was loud, rude, obnoxious and ratarsed by half three in the afternoon.

The drunker he got, the more of a cliche he became; loud exaggerated cockney postering, pint glasses under his top as makeshift tits, repeatedly calling everyone a 'mug'. Then later on, as my friend's girlfriend came back from the cashpoint, he was was doing that sort of weird Pearly King strut that only a complete try-hard ever does. 'Tell them they're a pair of Pompey maaahhhgs' he dribbled in her ear, like the fat Spurs supporting arsewipe he was. Then a slurred cry from the safety of another room.

'Oi mate. I heard all Pompey fans go bald at around your age hur hur.'

'I'm not Pompey.'

'Oh.'

What is it about people like this? Why do they feel the need to express their phoney machismo by attempting to belittle complete strangers, or better yet, entire countries? What makes it more annoying is that he's the sort of tool who people immediately think of when the term 'English football fan' gets chucked around. He's the public face of thousands of people who love the game and don't think it's an convenient vessel for their prejudices, or an excuse to puff their chests out and throw tinly veiled and ultimately empty threats of violence around. It's arseholes like him who stop me properly supporting England; the type of arse boil that leers at intimidated foriegn woman and chants 'get your tits out for the lads' in the safety of a pack of similar apes. He'll be around somewhere tonight no doubt, booing the Czech national anthem and embarrassing his mates. I hope they lose, frankly.

The major theme here is the ongoing conflict between religion and science with wizened scientists coming up against equally wizened cardinals, and Vatican City finding a new competitor in CERN (a giant physics lab in Switzerland which is well worth a google) in the fierce debate about creation. Brown does not paint a simple black and white scenario here, though, with many characters, such as the first victim, a priest who is also a physicist, pulling beliefs from both sides. Brown's novel caused me to conclude that no matter what we believe in, the point is: we need to believe in something. This is emphasised by the fact that even the cold blooded killer of Demons and Angels holds strong beliefs, certain that his killings are for a greater cause.

Robert Langdon, all tweed jacket and Harvard intelligence, finds himself pulled from his bachelor pad and lecture halls, to investigate a murder at CERN, which then leads him on a whirwind chase around Rome and the Vatican. Brown amazes us, as much as Robert(!) with the high tech gadgetry of CERN and even of the Vatican. Toss in some crazy villans, an attractive younger woman and a few near impossible escape stunts and you have James Bond...professor style. Langdon unravels the mystery using his deep knowledge of symbology and art history, but this by no means dampens the spirit of adventure. Langdon himself has to be the most sympathetic character and he rings true, perhaps, because he is somewhat modelled on Dan Brown himself. It's just a theory but Brown is a smart guy with an interest in art history and Langdon is a smart guy with an interest in art history....

Whether you read Dan Brown novels for excitement or education, however, you will find yourself picking up the most amazing facts, methodically researched by Brown, who is careful to state at the beginning of the novel that certain parts are, indeed, factual. The amazing setting of the Vatican is built up in our imaginations as Brown reels off one mind blowing fact after another. While the novel could simply be a vehicle which Brown uses to show off his insight into papal affairs, among other things, in this case, the facts and stats add to the story and move it along, allowing us to share Robert Langdon's wonder and awe.

When I was young

When I was free of ties

And the cares and worries of the world.

In those summers I had a plan

Though roughly sketched

And adrift in the aloofness of youth,

It was clear to me.

My life since then

Two decades now

Has rambled and sauntered

And led me far from home.

Where has your plan led you?

Has it fallen by that wayside

Rubbing shoulders and keeping company

With the isolation that life can sometimes bring?

Where has your journey brought you?

Where have your hopes been parked?

Where have your dreams been sold?

Or is it as you always thought it would be?

(C) 2008, Tim Prendeville

Drop into romesnowboards.com to check out the new 1/1 Agents and reverse-cambered 1985 Artifacts, the new late 70s-era Bowery-influenced Libertine boots, the new neon-light 390s that fit seamlessly on the Artifact, and of course the new outerwear collection, featuring the Draggers Only and Vagrant jackets.

After a tour through the product collection, stop into the new Syndicate section with more ways than ever to get involved in the SDS: post videos easily or enter the Local GNAR contest on ShredTV, post your thoughts on “This Is Snowboarding” alongside Bjorn, LNP, snowboard magazine editors and shop owners, enter the Flophouse Gallery contest to win a grip of boards for you and your crew, or send your feedback on Rome gear easily through the Test Center.

Another new addition to the site is the SDS Blog, a place where you can hear the interests, opinions, and rants of artists, designers, reps and other people deep inside the SDS as they spout off about snowboarding, art, and non-snowboarding topics.

For those bathroom moments when you’d rather flip a page, sign up for the new Rome catalog that started shipping last week—delivered free to your door as always.

With the Reformers, we insist that liturgical idolatry is a most dangerous temptation and sin for many within Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. This includes the veneration of man-made images, statues, relics, Eucharistic elements, the invocation of the saints, as well as other practices and traditions which are not according to Scripture. Likewise, we warn all the faithful to flee those doctrines or practices which, whether in doctrine or in practice, undermine the fundamental and sovereign graciousness of God in salvation. 

Finally, while we consider divisions in the body of Christ most grievous to the calling of the Church, and we confess that the Reformed tradition has contributed its own failures to this state of affairs, we do not believe that abstract considerations of church polity, apostolic succession, or institutional unity rise to the level of weightier matters of the law. Therefore, however helpful the study of those issues may be, they must not jeopardize genuine Christian fellowship, justify the denunciation of the least in the kingdom of God, or result in disparaging the validity of the ordinations or sacraments of other churches that worship our Triune God in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Individuals who join communions that effectively excommunicate their Protestant brothers and sisters contradict their search for catholicity, and ironically, the goal of unity comes at the expense of further divisions in the body of Christ. We desire to be of one mind with all the saints, not by coercion, but by the same patient love of our brothers and sisters shown by Christ in His patient love for His Bride, the Church.

-----

Historicity beyond the Scriptures

However, it is important to me that the trajectory of the tradition continue to be reliable beyond the primary events noted in those writing having been elevated to ‘scripture’ by that same tradition. After all, there are approximately 2000 years of intervening history between the events of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The basis of my current belief is transmitted through all of the intervening lives and deaths of the saints reaching back to the life of Christ himself, no that is too limited—back to Abraham at least. You see my point. The state of the tradition throughout those 2000 years is important to the current state of the church. A corrupt tradition sincerely believed is still corrupt although perhaps a bit more admirably so. But, those thoughts will get us ahead of ourselves.

The Lives and Deaths of the Apostles after the Life of Christ

This brings me back to considering the lives of the apostles. It makes sense that we would need to continue to find real evidence of the profound effect of the miraculous nature of their relationship to Jesus and God in their lives beyond the death of Christ. Otherwise, it is legitimate to question the miraculous nature of these relationships.

After all, if someone you loved and respected came back from the dead to ask you to do something, you would give such a request somewhat of a more thorough hearing and consideration than if the request were made by a person passing you on the street.

This hypothetical is all the more interesting when the nature of those requests are extraordinary and may contain your suffering in a manner that is unimaginable to most people in this day and age (but obvious to those in first century Judea who would see people hang on a cross on an all-to-often basis).

Worse than that even, if the dead-now-alive again person that asks you to do these things has already caused you a great deal of trouble and grief, but now is truly dead and can offer you no comfort in this world or whatever might lie beyond it—and you know that to be the case—you are going to reject such a request out of hand...because you would know they could not have been made anyway. This is the circumstance of the apostles of Jesus if, in fact, he did not come back to the living from the dead.

You have to be convinced that he is alive to continue his mission.

The apostles of Christ clearly were.

——-
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What makes a movie crappy? To Lee, it's a lack of emotional directness and vividness, and a habit of explaining instead of telling the story. The biggest crime she came up with while watching ROME (crappy): "Shooting the Outline." Rome constantly shot the outline. If the outline reads "They cross the Rubicon" the filmmakers film a bunch of dudes in togas and military gear crossing a river saying "This is the Rubicon." Blech, and they did it over and over again.

When Shooting the Outline happens, there's no emotional color, no dramatic texture, no story unfolding in front of you, just things you have to know about in order for you to get it. Everything, when Shooting the Outline, feels like a montage. To quote the guys from South Park: It's a training montage! ... Always fade out in a montage!

Crappy movie number 1: The Painted Veil. Ed Norton and Naomi Watts in a Cholera epidemic in rural China. He is punishing the adulterous Watts character by bringing her here. Toby Jones plays a noble homunculus and spirit guide through the hard landscape for them both.

The Painted Veil had:
An adultery montage
A resentful native montage
A redemption montage
etc.

What is a montage in these contexts? I think a montage is when NOTHING DRAMATIC OR SURPRISING happens. This is fine. Sometimes you need to communicate that something typical or expected happen. They fell in love (in the usual way). They learned how to shoot (it's a training montage...!) They drove all night. They had sex.

When the core of the movie works this way, the movie is "crappy." (Getting back to our original question...) I remember two good scenes in this movie, two non-montages, both involving emotional intensity from Ed Norton. The first is the scene where he goads her into confronting him. The second, their hostilities almost break and they move closer to a detente, but don't quite get there. The rest is predictable and dull, though lushly shot and competently directed.

Leela always goes to Fatih Akin and Almodovar for examples of her favorite storytelling. What would these directors do with this material? There wouldn't be a shortage of emotional intensity, and further, the characters would be human enough to have wit, or humor or levity. At least they wouldn't be sketches of characters, they would be characters you can feel around inside and invest yourself in.

I agree. I felt the Naomi Watts character was only there to be watched, you never were allowed to know her, only "know" her in the way you already know certain character types: she's young, shallow, vain, spoiled, etc.

Lee thinks the beginning was too short, you were just given hinted details when the real story was there, not in the strained relations and redemption in the end, but more in who this character (Watts' character) was and why she acted like she did.

I love having Leela around, because as I'm trying to find the good movie in the bad, or wondering if I'm missing something, being too critical not open to decent storytelling, Leela remains indignant. I'm still not certain The Painted Veil isn't a good movie done badly, but Leela thinks they should scrap the whole thing and refocus. In the end I think she's right.

Tomorrow: Crappy Movie #2: French thriller, 'Tell No One' and how Almodovar would have done that one.

Source: Wikipedia

"I figured, 'I am up here; you are down there in your seat. If you think you can do it better, you get up here and do it, and I'll go take your chair. But for now, I'm the one here, so even if I fall flat on my face, it's still more than what you're doing in your chair!' Once I acquired that attitude, my steps got stronger, and my head got higher. I've continued to use that throughout my life, whether I have to give a speech or attend a big red-carpet event. I tell myself, 'I'm here because I deserve to be here, not because of some mistake.'"

--Kimora Lee Simmons

Me in Vatican City.

In his appearance in Lisbon, in Eusebio Cup, the Swedish played well, with tricks, assists, powerful shots, a quasi-goal, and so forth. Take a look at this interview:

Zlatan, what feelings did you get from that match?

“Very good feelings. I think I played a good match, but the most important thing is that I have the resistance to play an entire game, that I feel well, and that my knee hasn’t gave me problems.”

Can we say that your physic problems are definitely gone?

“My condition becomes better and I have no problems. But my knee needs some more checking. Yes, the worst is gone away.”

And what about Inter?

“Very good. With Benfica we confirmed to be in good condition and we are still growing up. Backward we suffer very little and we are very tough.”

Inter defense is hermetic, but in four matches away from home you got only two goals.

“The most important thing is to create occasions. Even in Lisbon we could have scored at least four goals, and we don’t have to forget the penalty that was in my action. We will score them in Supercoppa, against Rome.”

No way, Ibrahimovic is a real leader. I could bet on a goal scored by Zlatan in Rome-Inter. I’m, sure about it…

(Pictures in the gallery at the bottom: More pictures, less interference with the text)

The past days have brought two rare reunions, one more or less expected, the other one fully unexpected. On Thursday both of my sisters arrived in Rome, coming from Berlin and Munich. As I was getting prepared to pick up my sister Victoria from Stazione Termini, someone Skyped me, claiming to be Carlo. I immediately recognized my old friend’s voice. I had not seen Carlo Martucci for about ten years and, to my great sorrow, lost contact with him. I had sent him a message online, which I did not really expect to reach him. He got to know that I was in town and explained that he lived just around the corner from where I am staying right now. We promptly arranged to meet in front of the Pantheon and soon fell into each others’ arms. I invited me to join me and my family for dinner and we took off to Termini.

There I met up with my parents, my sister Victoria as well as another old family friend my mother had met in town earlier J A merry crowd we all sat down in a rustic, down-to-earth street Restaurant and ate good Pasta. Soon a taxi stopped on the street next to our table and my eldest sister Carolina stepped out making the family complete. She is working for a bank in Berlin but is currently working in Munich for 6 weeks. Later in the evening I accompanied Carlo to his beautiful apartment where I also got to know his lovely girlfriend. We talked until well into the morning hours, he told me about his course of studies in architecture and showed me some of his work.

The next day my family and I made an extensive walk through Rome, starting off with an ice cream breakfast at one the most famous Gelaterias. In the afternoon we drove out of Rome heading to our friends’ farm in northern Lazio where we would spend the weekend.

Upon our arrival our friends, the Caponettis, were already waiting for us. They realized their lifelong dream of to “spend our life in the country: big family, greenery all around, horses, dogs and animals of all kind; many friends and guests”. I can only advise any traveller in Italy, seeking beautiful nature, Italian culture as well as hospitality to stay in this beautiful agritourism-hotel. We were also warmly welcomed by the dogs, horses and all the other animals on the large estate. The place is beautifully located in the Tuscania valley in which there are thousands of Etruscan (the pre roman civilization in the area) tombs and irrigation systems many of whom date back over 3000 years. The landscape is breathtaking. For the first time in weeks I was able to sleep … in silence … and soothing coolness. I had a little guest in my room that night: a scorpion. I have never seen one alive before. Since Scorpio is my star sign, I won't forget this first encounter.

Saturday, we drove to Viterbo, a pleasant ancient town surrounded by medieval walls and once the favorite residence of the Popes. Later a good friend, who know my parents longer than I exist and is the godfather of Victoria came to see us, driving all the way from Bologna. Giorgio Caponetti took all of us to the neighboring estate, which belongs to a two time Olympic Gold medal horse rider. There the very friendly horseman showed us around ruins of a Cistercian monastery, which he is restoring with much skill and dedication. In the evening we were blessed with the famous cooking skills of Laura Caponetti for the second time. Another lovely evening with much talking and wine drinking, above us the stars and - to our great surprise! - A lunar eclipse. On Sunday, after a hearty breakfast, we took off to Rome driving on the Roman Via Cassia.

Tonight is the last evening my family and I will be together. Carolina has already left and Victoria will leave tomorrow morning. My parents also need to be on their way up north, towards Berlin. However, very soon there will be another lovely visitor, my girlfriend, coming to visit me for the weekend.

Foto di Valentina Perniciaro.L'eclissi di luna.

Sognatore è chi trova la sua via alla luce della luna... punito perché vede l'alba prima degli altri -O.Wilde-

A new dawn had arrived. Oversight was promised, sweeping investigations were heralded and the blogosphere rumbled over the possibility of impeachment. Why had the Bush administration stuffed the formerly non-partisan Justice Department with party loyalists and purged the remainder? How high up did the plot to discredit Joe Wilson's criticism of Iraq War intelligence by outing his wife as an undercover CIA agent actually go? Did the Bush administration ignore evidence indicating that Saddam Hussein did not in fact have weapons of mass destruction, and more importantly did they purposely falsify documents to make it appear as if he had?

Significant questions that I have little doubt will eventually be answered, but it will be several years hence and won't be the result of any oversight from our current Democratic Congress. Despite the initial bluster there has been nothing done to reign in an out of control executive branch aside from the traditional limitations of lame-duck status that settle in during the waning hours of an administration's second term.

Harriet Miers and Karl Rove were subpoenaed to appear before congress to testify regarding the U.S. attorneys affair but declined to attend; citing a new definition of executive privilege that included everyone a president has ever spoken to. In a move not without irony congress turned to the Justice Department itself in an attempt an force the issue, but surprisingly enough the requests have become lost in the bureaucracy. Big Government and all that. Congress does have the inherent power to jail those in its chamber for contempt, however that would require a specific bone that the institution is not all that well known for.

In a further attempt to put a chill into the Bush Administration Nancy Pelosi; the fire-breathing liberal from San Francisco stated that "impeachment was off the table". This led to speculation as to what exactly was on the table. Some suspected it to be a ham sandwich, but this was debunked after Senator Joe Lieberman was allowed to continue caucusing with the Democrats.

Aside from the inherent embarrassment of quaking whenever a man with a 26% approval rating looks at you cross-eyed Congress' unwillingness to provide a check to the executive branch spells trouble for the future. The Bush administration has been accused of things from numerous reputable sources that would make Nixon's forays into criminality look like frat-house hi-jinks, yet it appears that they will all eventually ride off into the sunset continuing to play cowboy and counting the upturn percentage in their oil company shares. The political class is not the most inventive, however they are certainly able to discern when the chances are good that their actions will not have consequences.

Voting "Nay" Yours, Derek.

WordPress.com Political Blogger Alliance

The pre-War-on-Terror statistics have counted on the countless killings of Muslims; those who would be maimed; imprisoned; defamed and otherwise silenced to reduce the numbers of Muslims; hence the power they have against the tyranny planned against the remaining people of the world. This process, like many other efforts around the world, is actually causing for the West to actually open up their eyes and are forced to read, to think and to react to Islam. It appears that Allah (swt) - God Almighty - example in the Qur'an is clear when He says:

And (the unbelievers) plotted and planned, and Allah too planned, and the best of planners is Allah. - Al-Qur'an (3:54)

Museo del Corso / Rome

THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN ROME.
The Renaissance of Art from Donatello to Perugino
Exhibition > 7th September 2008






The Museo del Corso is holding the first major exhibition dedicated to Rome in the fifteenth century. Produced and organised jointly by the Fondazione Roma and Arthemisia, this exhibition is a guide to discovering a little known aspect of the Eternal City, which is chiefly famous for the splendour of Imperial and Baroque Rome. In actual fact it was owing to the fifteenth century, when the Pope returned to Peter's throne in the Vatican after the Avignonese period (1305-1377), that Rome retrieved the leading role in the artistic, political and religious scenario from the XVI to the XX century.

Museo del Corso
THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY IN ROME.
The Renaissance of Art from Donatello to Perugino
Exhibition poster

To testify this renaissance a collection of 170 works of arts including plastic models, vestments, altar cloths and holy vessels, civilian furnishings, ceramics, sculptures, drawings, paintings and Papal medals have been brought from the most important museums in Italy and abroad, such as the Vatican Museums, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the British Museum in London, the Stiftung Museum Kunst Plast in Düsseldorf and the Skulpturensammlung und Museum für Byzantinische Kunst in Berlin.

The exhibition investigates town planning and the social, religious and artistic aspects of Rome in the Fifteenth century when, attracted by the rich Papal commissioning and arising innovative cultural environment, the most important artists poured into the city throughout the entire Italian Renaissance period starting from Donatello, Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti whose theoretical works were inspired by ancient Rome. Amongst the artists displayed are Gentile da Fabbriano, Mantegna, Perugino, Piero della Francesca, Pinturicchio, Filippo Lippi, and even Michelangelo who actually started his extraordinary career in Rome during the fifteenth century.



The exhibition is divided into five sections:



1. The City

The history of very few cities coincides with the history of the world. Rome is one of these and certainly the only city that during its 3000 years of life has almost always played a leading role.
The XV century corresponds to the rebirth of the city after the decline during the XIV century. This section documents the recovery of the road network, walls, aqueducts and the construction of new facility buildings (e.g. the Santo Spirito Hospital), the magnificence of noble residences such as the Niccolò V Palace and the great Roman basilicas.

Johann Wilhelm Baur (attribuito) (Strasburgo, 1607 - Vienna, 1642)
Piazza Navona intorno al 1630
Olio su tela, 101,2 x 135,3 cm
Roma, Museo di Roma, Gabinetto Comunale delle Stampe

2. Civilian and religious life.

During the fifteenth century Rome was a lively though sometimes violent city.
This section recaptures the aspects of daily life, almost as if to enter the homes, streets and noble residences of the Romans in order to discover their private lives that was led amid times of peace, joy and goliardery and times of war, pain and sadness.
Lastly in order to fully understand society at that time the religious or devotional aspects that marked time all year round cannot be neglected.

Benozzo di Lese detto Gozzoli (Firenze, 1420 - Pistoia, 1497)
Due nudi in un paesaggio con due cani, 1448-1450
Disegno a penna, acquerello marroncino e rossiccio, biacca su carta gialla, controfondato, 175 x 230 mm
Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe

3. Rome, a treasure chest of ancient history

The idea that Rome was an open air museum was implicitly endorsed by the presence of those artists who, inspired by antiquity, created the Renaissance in Florence. Donatello came to Rome in 1402 followed shortly after by Brunelleschi; the former came to study classical sculpture and the latter the building techniques in ancient Rome that would subsequently be applied to build the great dome of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence.
It was not without reason that the theorisation of the Renaissance was born on the banks of the river Tiber where Leon Battista Alberti went to meditate. Through his treatises such as the De re aedificatoria - On the Art of Building (1443-1452) that was fundamental for architecture and De Statua - On sculpture (1450) for sculpture, Leon Battista Alberti furnished his contemporaries with the tools for defining and developing the new artistic movement.
With fifteenth century drawings, archaeological findings and copies of monuments, this section documents the love that artists in this century had for ancient Rome.



4. The Popes' Rome

Contemporary historiography now agrees that the exceptional development of Rome during the Renaissance, starting from the XV century, would have not been feasible without the patronage of Popes.
The works exhibited document the role of the twelve popes that during the fifteenth century succeeded each other on the throne of Peter. The first Pope who managed to direct the city towards a new flourish of art was Martin V (1417-1431), whilst the height of art in this century was certainly reached by Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) who bequeathed that absolute masterpiece of the Sistine Chapel to succeeding generations.



5. The Great Artists

Andrea Mantenga (Isola di Carturo, 1431-1506)
Madonna con il Bambino detta Madonna delle cave
Tempera su tavola, 32 x 29,6 cm
Firenze, Galleria degli Uffizi

Piero della Francesca (Sansepolcro, 1412-1492)
Madonna benedicente con il Bambino e due angeli (Madonna di Senigallia)
Olio su tavola di noce, 61 x 53,5 cm
Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche

Pietro Vannucci detto il Perugino (attribuito) (Città della Pieve, 1450 circa - Fontignano, 1523)
San Sebastiano
Olio su tavola, 110 x 62 cm
Roma, Galleria Borghese

The deeds of the various Popes proved to be indispensable for the rebirth of arts in Rome and this is the reason why we are able to show, in the present day, sheer masterpieces such as the Madonna delle Cave by Mantenga - now kept in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence - that was painted by the artist when he came to Rome in order to fresco the apartments built by Innocent VIII in the Belvedere villa in the Vatican.
However, Mantenga was not the only great painter to have revealed his genius to the city of Rome. The great pictorial tradition of the Renaissance even dates back to Pisanello, Gentile da Fabbriano and Masaccio that worked during the reign of Pope Martin V. Other great artists in Rome were Piero della Francesca, Filippo Lippi, Melozzo da Forlì, Pinturicchio and Filippino Lippi all of whom are shown in this exhibition.
Two absolutely new elements complete the visit to the Museo del Corso: a large multimedia map of fifteenth century Rome and a tridimensional reconstruction of the Carafa Chapel of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva. The former allows visitors to observe the particulars of monuments and buildings in Rome during that period whereas the latter - realized by ENEA (National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment) - by applying colour optical radar technology (usually used for investigations in space) gives a such a clear and close view of Lippi's frescoes that even the smallest details may be perceived.

This Exhibition shows for the first time since it was found, since it had been missing for over twenty years, Piermatteo d'Amelia's masterpiece "Madonna con Bambino" that has moreover been carefully restored

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Sometimes I feel English is like Latin in Rome centuries ago. For reaching a greater audience now and then, it would be good to try using the language that is more able to communicate in a broader sense. We know English is not the most used language in the world. But certainly is the most famous, I think.

Of course, as any person who does not practice regularly a language, I may have made some mistakes here, on this post, especially in using the in/on/at words. It's just an experience, and soon I'll have the answer about the effects of writing, in English, about nothing.

Hugs from Brazil!

Archaeologists digging in Turkey have found the colossal marble head of a Roman empress.

It was discovered in a rubble-filled building where parts of a huge statue of the emperor Hadrian were unearthed last year.

The discovery, at the ancient site of Sagalassos, is thought to show Faustina the Elder, wife of Roman emperor Antoninus Pius.

Sagalassos was once an important urban centre.

It was abandoned after being hit by several strong earthquakes.

A team led by Marc Waelkens, from the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, has been excavating the site since 1990.

The head of Faustina was lying face down in rubble that fills the ruins of a bath house that was partially destroyed by an earthquake between AD 540 and AD 620.

It was unearthed just 6m from the spot where the Hadrian statue was found, but was sitting higher up in the rubble.

Emperor's line

At first, exacavators thought they had found a statue belonging to Hadrian's wife, Vibia Sabina, who was forced into a marriage with the homosexual emperor at the age of 14.

But when they turned it over, the face was very different from the usual depictions of Sabina. This was a more mature woman with fleshy lips and a distinctive hairstyle.

Experts said most of the features of the head identify the woman as Faustina the Elder. She married Hadrian's successor as emperor and adopted son, Antoninus Pius.

Faustina was well respected, especially for her charity work. She enjoyed a happy marriage to Antoninus which lasted 31 years until her death in AD 141. In her memory, Antoninus formally deified her as a goddess.

The building in which the statues were found at Sagalassos was probably a "frigidarium" - a room with a cold pool which Romans could dip into after a hot bath.

It is part of a larger bath complex that is being carefully uncovered by archaeologists.

The fragments were found not on the floor of the frigidarium - beneath the rubble from the earthquake - but higher up in the debris pile.

More discoveries

This suggests they did not originally stand in this room, but were hauled there from elsewhere in the bath complex - probably from the "Kaisersaal", or emperor's room.

They speculate that the Kaisersaal once hosted statues of Hadrian, Faustina the Elder and other members of Rome's so-called Antonine dynasty - many of whom belonged to a Spanish or southern French provincial aristocracy.

The Hadrian statue was probably brought to the frigidarium either to remove its gilded armour or to be burned to cement in a nearby kiln.

The fragments are now on display at the exhibition Hadrian: Empire and Conflict at the British Museum in London.

But the frigidarium did have colossal statues of its own. On the floor of the room, experts have found the front parts of two huge female feet, surrounded by mosaics that follow the contours of the statue's long dress.

Original article retrieved from here.