Vae Victis

 

"Le Brenn et sa part de butin" by Paul Jamin (1893)

Subject: Brennus

Artist: Paul Jamin 

Meaning of  ”Vae victis“, which is an actual quote by Brennus from the time the painting depicts.

It’s never too late to set things straight

The 10 greatest sci-fi films never made

From the timesonline.co.uk article:
The unfinished masterpieces of fantasy cinema

1: Vincent Ward’s Alien 3

2: Superman -vs- Batman

3: Steven Spielberg’s Night Skies

4: John Carter of Mars

5: Star Trek: Planet of the Titans

6: Childhood’s End

7: The Stars My Destination

8: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune

9: Ridley Scott’s I am Legend

10: The Outer Limits

Read the article here.

Better Days

Here is a series of commercial advertising photos by Nickolas Muray.

Top 5 Bets for Extraterrestrial Life in the Solar System

Enceladus

From wired.com

If we ever do find extraterrestrial life in the solar system, it’s probably much more likely to look like a few cells than a walking-and-talking green man. Nonetheless, finding any kind of life beyond Earth would be extraordinary. Here are our best hopes:

Read the article here.

Ancient ‘Treasure’ Found in Farmer’s Bookshelf

From the discovery.com article:
Italian police have found the long-sought “treasure of Satricum” in a farmer’s bookshelf, they announced at a news conference in Rome this week.

Consisting of more than 500 delicate miniature pots crafted about 2,600 years ago, the “treasure” was discovered during a police investigation in the countryside near the village of Campoverde di Aprilia, some 25 miles south of Rome.
…
Meticulously stored in a bookshelf in the farmer’s house, the miniature jars were made of Italo-Corinthian pottery and Etruscan bucchero pottery, a kind of ceramic made in the Etruscan region between the 7th and 5th centuries B.C.

Read the article here.

The Western Tradition

A video instructional series on Western civilization. You just have to register and then you can watch 52 half-hour video programs for free. 
Go here to see the series. 

From the learner.org website.

The Western Tradition covers the ancient world through the age of technology, this illustrated lecture by Eugen Weber presents a tapestry of political and social events woven with many strands — religion, industry, agriculture, demography, government, economics, and art. A visual feast of over 2,700 images from the Metropolitan Museum of Art portrays key events that shaped the development of Western thought, culture, and tradition.  

I personally love these videos, mostly because Eugen Weber makes the history so damn interesting. Mr. Weber strikes me as a very classy guy, as if he’s from some more erudite and noble era come to enlighten us. Unfortunately Mr. Weber passed away in 2007.

Eugen Weber info here.

Wilderness Battlefield vs. Walmart

From the businessweek.com article:
Wal-Mart wants to build a Supercenter within a cannonshot of where Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant first fought, a proposal that has preservationists rallying to protect the key Civil War site.

A who’s who of historians including filmmaker Ken Burns and Pulitzer Prize winner David McCullough sent a letter last month to H. Lee Scott, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., urging the company to build somewhere farther from the Wilderness Battlefield.

“The Wilderness is an indelible part of our history, its very ground hallowed by the American blood spilled there, and it cannot be moved,” said the letter from 253 scholars and others.

Wal-Mart and its supporters point out that the 138,000-square-foot store would be right behind a bank and a small strip mall, a full mile from entrance to the site of the 1864 clash that left thousands dead and hastened the war’s end.

Local leaders also want the $500,000 in tax revenue they estimate the big box store will generate for rural Orange County, a gradually growing area about 60 miles southwest of Washington.

Read the article here.

See a description of the Wilderness Battlefield vs. Walmart situation including video here.

Additional maps and sat photos here.