Historical GDP growth rates

these figures are very thought-provoking.

Forget the current situation where we have seen a significant change in the GDP figures, but nations rely on a very long history to develop. Patents. Universities. Infrastructure. Dams. Irrigation Networks. Institutions. All those help and have a very long chain. 

Look at the UK, its growth rate was extraordinary and that is what provides you hope that the UK will prosper and develop much more. It will have to rely on the institutions, infrastructure, universities to keep on developing further. 

I am still learning

O

I'm reading a new biography of this hero of mine. It's not the same as stone's book, drier but what a man. 

70 years old and he's still learning. 

As I told Kannu, just because you're out of school doesn't mean you stop learning. 

Writing in the boustrophedon way

I remember this. I saw this manuscript in Rome. Kannu, you would be too young to remember this but I got so excited about this. What a great way to write. Much more efficient eh?
Absolutely fascinating. I wonder if we can have an app which does this for us? It would increase my efficiency at least 20-30%!
Very interesting

Noodles were made in Italy first? :O

What a fascinating story. So the origin of noodles was always known to be in China and was thought to be brought to Europe by Marco Polo. But looks like noodles were made even before.

 

I quote

An unusual coin type recently sold at auction depicts an ancient industry, hitherto unrecorded on coinage or sculptural reliefs: the production of noodles. The coin, which fetched 30,000 GBP at the London-based Ceres Auction House, was minted at Ephesus in the reign of the Roman emperor Geta (209-212) and depicts two figures using an ancient form of noodle machine.

As clearly depicted on the coin, one figure feeds the device, which is shaped like a goddess, with dough while the other lays the finished product out to dry (although a recent theory put forth by Dr. Brett Teigleman of the University of Lower Minnesota has proposed the theory that the figure on the right is scraping spätzle from a board by hand, just as is done today in Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria). We can see that the dough is forced out of the machine at high pressure in regularly shaped portions.
Although it is commonly held that noodles originated in China before being brought to Italy by Marco Polo, they were in fact widely enjoyed throughout the ancient world: the geographer Strabo and Pliny the Elder describe the production of alicia or chondroi from spelt in Campania (Natural History 18.8), although the earliest reference to chondroi occurs in an unfortunately largely unintelligible fragment of Aristophanes’ comedy Mageiroi, “The Cooks”, from 414 B.C. (Kock, Frag. 496b). This coin suggests that the production of spätzle was widespread in the grain-rich districts of Ionia, and epigraphic evidence also records the presence of guilds of ‘Hypochondroi’ or artisan noodle-makers there and their worship of Artemis Chondriates, to whom they offered sacred dough products (IG 2.II,40 (Ionia), 570-572b, ll. 2,8).

Florence, 1100-1532, What a Republic!

Kannu Choti

Florence is one of the cities that I'm desperate to visit. It's high on my list. Along with Venice. It's an extraordinary cornucopia of artistic riches. And has a history that is literally breathtaking. 

We have read so much about Florence and it's grandeur that it's unbelievable that one city can actually absorb so much brilliance. And not just one or two people kids but it had people who were from all walks of life and all areas of human endeavour. 

The below mentioned example of Florence's political development is brilliant. We are citizens of a liberal democracy with a constitutional monarchy sitting over the elected members, judiciary and executive. Yes people quibble about which model is good, like the American one or the French one but the weight of history is something to consider. Very important. 

Fascinating background to Florence. We will go there soon :) 

Love

Baba

Mike Anderson's Ancient History Blog: Florence, 1100-1532, What a Republic!
http://www.mikeanderson.biz/2014/02/florence-1100-1532-what-republic.html

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Florence, in this blog? I thought this was supposed to be ancient history! Yes, but sometimes we can find value when we compare political systems from different times in history. The Republic of Florence an interesting case to compare to Republican Rome, because it gives us another example of how men try to build stable governments. Florence was a city republic like Rome but it was never able to expand in the same way because of the circumstances of its time. Still, its leaders faced the same challenges the Romans did – socio-economic class differences, economic interests, and cultural influences. In my last post I mentioned that those designing Republics, including America’s founding fathers, went to great lengths to insure their infant political systems would not revert to monarchies through the consolidation of power. Florence stands as an extreme case of this paranoia.

As one of the great merchant cities of the middle ages (Pisa or Antwerp would be other examples), Florence escaped participation in the feudal system because it had a strong capitalist engine and could operate as an independent political system. Feudalism could only take root where bureaucracy failed and it did not fail there. The Florentine political system certainly had its ups and downs, but it was business that moved Florence forward and politics were regulated by business.

By the year 900 A.D, the great cities of Europe had been weakened to a point where it was necessary to start from scratch. Commerce and artisanship had to be rekindled by recruiting citizens with the right skills from the outside, mostly from the agrarian economies of the surrounding territory. Florence always found aristocratic control unacceptable, so any tendency in that direction was continually resisted. Its leaders were a new class of man; middle class merchants we call burghers, who were independent, entrepreneurial, and confident. Between the years of 900 and 1250, these burghers turned Florence into an autonomous institution by resisting and expelling those who would attempt to impose on them some kind of hierarchical model of government. They were aided in this effort by the emperors and popes who wasted time and money fighting among themselves for control of Italy rather than attacking the city.

What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us?

Kids

One of the strange things about religions is how territorial they are. Pretty much every religion has borrowed from some other religion or customs. Which is perfectly fine but then that invites charges of hypocrisy when they turn around and say it's the literal words of god. Well, god seems to have this habit of changing his mind eh? 

Personally speaking I like Gods who change their minds. It's more fun. Can you imagine having a God whose mind doesn't change? How boring. You might as well as forget the laws of physics anyway. Even gods are subject to laws of physics, thermodynamics and entropy eh? 

Anyway a nice little history lesson here. As you know kannu we took you to Rome when you were 3. Far too young to appreciate the wonders of Rome. And now that I'm studying Roman architecture I'm minded to take you two to Rome and Florence and Venice and and and again. Shall we? Couple of weeks? Of sun, sea, sand, lovely food, mouldy buildings and get you kids a bit of a refresher course in the horrible history of Italy? :) 

Love

Baba

What Have the Romans Ever Done For Us? Christmas Edition
http://rogueclassicism.com/2013/12/24/what-have-the-romans-ever-done-for-us-christmas-edition/

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Nice little feature on Classical elements in Christmas … according to Matthew Nicholls at Reading (so it’s got a scholar behind it!) … via the University of Reading:

When opening your presents or enjoying a night out this Christmas spare a quick thought for the Romans. We owe much of our festive fun to them.The Romans celebrated the winter festival of Sigillaria on 23rd of December, part of their Saturnalia¹ festivities. Just like on Christmas Day, Sigillaria saw presents exchanged. So how does Sigillaria compare to a modern day Christmas? And can we say that the Roman’s invented Christmas?Dr Matthew Nicholls, a senior lecturer of classics at the University of Reading, has explored the work of Martial² and Seneca, writers of the time, and found striking similarities including gifts of ugly but warm ‘jumpers’, ‘Kindlesque’ portable storage for books and even a Roman bah-humbug!Dr Nicholls is the creator of Virtual Rome, an ambitious digital model of the entire ancient city of Rome.
GiftsThat’s just what I always wanted“The poet Martial’s work indicates that gift recipients would have faced similar ‘reaction’ issues to our own. Quality of presents varied enormously. The traditional present for the Saturnalia was some nuts – not unlike old fashioned handful of walnuts in a Christmas stocking. Martial mentions ‘gifts given and received’ some of which sound rather familiar.“Fish-sauce, jars of honey, bottles of wine, toothpicks, a pencil case, perfume, a flask encased in wicker-work and clothing – even an item that sounds like an ugly but warm Christmas sweater…a ‘shaggy nursling of a weaver on the Seine, a barbarian garment … a thing uncouth but not to be despised in cold December … that searching cold may not pass into your limbs … you will laugh at rain and winds, clothed in this gift’. (Ep. 4.19)The Roman Kindle that could store the entire

Italian archaeologists have grape expectations of their ancient wine

Kids

I thought you will like to read about what the Italian archaeologists are doing. Specially given that we were in Sicily couple of weeks back. Fascinating exercise eh? I wonder how their wine will turn out. 

Love

Baba

Italian archaeologists have grape expectations of their ancient wine
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/22/italy-wine-archaeology

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The University of Catania's vines are secured with canes and woven juniper leaves. Photograph: Mario Indelicato

Archeologists in Italy have set about making red wine exactly as the ancient Romans did, to see what it tastes like.

Based at the University of Catania in Sicily and supported by Italy's national research centre, a team has planted a vineyard near Catania using techniques copied from ancient texts and expects its first vintage within four years.

"We are more used to archeological digs but wanted to make society more aware of our work, otherwise we risk being seen as extraterrestrials," said archaeologist Daniele Malfitana.

The representation of Italian nudes due to Indians?

What a curious argument. I quote:

We discovered innumerable lands, we saw innumerable people and different languages, and all were naked.1 (Amerigo Vespucci, letter to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de’ Medici, 1500)

This essay proposes that we question the current understanding of the Italian Renaissance nude by examining contemporaries’ perceptions of nakedness. Despite the importance of the nude for the development of Western art, there have been few studies that consider how the revival of the nude form in fifteenth-century Italy was understood by people at the time.2 Most scholars, understandably, see the new fashion for portraying naked figures in the fifteenth century as a direct reflection of the enthusiasm for classical antiquity during this era. Without denying the crucial importance of antique precedents, I wish here to investigate another possibility: that travellers’ accounts of naked natives encountered on European voyages of exploration, particularly those to sub-Saharan Africa, influenced the creation of what has been called a ‘Renaissance anthropology’ – debates about the nature of mankind.3 This provided a new conceptual filter through which the nude figure was seen – and in some cases, these accounts may have directly affected the iconography of otherwise puzzling images.

The article has four main inter-related areas of focus:

• the increased nakedness of depictions of Adam and Eve from the early fifteenth century, placed in the context of Renaissance understandings of the development of early mankind – and an emphasis on nakedness as a symbol of human potential;
• a survey of Italian travel accounts that invoke stereotypes of nakedness as a symbol for peoples understood to have no civic society, religion or social differentiation;
• the increased presence of black Africans in Italian cities (particularly as slaves) over the course of the fifteenth century – with an analysis of Pisanello's Luxuria in this context;
• Florentine links with the Portuguese voyages to Africa, and descriptions of battling tribesmen, as a means of interpreting Antonio del Pollaiuolo's Battle of Naked Men, a seminal work in the development of the nude form.

I was specially caught by mention of Niccolo dei Conti, who visited India from Italy around 1439AD. He was the second Italian trader who visited India after Marco Polo (1295 or so). He seems to have married an Indian and travelled all over the Middle East, India and South East Asia. Amazing fella (hereis a great biography of the chap) but the interesting hypothesis is that the travel accounts from Africa and India helped to influence the portrayal of nudes in Italian art. I am not that close to all the various permutations of Italian Art, but it is interesting to note the time period after which nudes become common…how curious.

They had a project manager for the Duomo and Pantheon

I shared this article with the team the other day. I quote the abstract

This paper narrates the project management of the construction of the Florence Duomo by Filippo Brunelleschi in the fifteenth century. This was the most significant dome project in Europe in 1300 years, and possibly the most significant, innovative and complex project of the Renaissance era (Colombo and Lanzavecchia, 1997). It still stands as the largest brick dome ever built. In order to achieve what seemed technically impossible at the time, Brunelleschi researched and adapted the construction and project management of the Pantheon in Rome in the second century. The paper allows us in turn to learn both product and process innovation from this case study, both of which are essential to contemporary project management practice. The case is valuable in understanding key drivers of project management success, and illustrates the substantial potential for learning, and therefore knowledge transfer, from previous historical projects and experiences.

So I am a project manager as well, I deliver change. But even so, I cannot imagine project managing something like this.

this is the Pantheon. Well, the painting is better…the photographs don't show a good perspective. Massive structure. While I was there, I was dumbstruck…what an amazing building

And then the Duomo, I haven't seen this but its on my list, what an extraordinary building as well.

Now these architects and project managers are some to look up to! brilliant. One day I will deliver something like this I hope when I grow up!

Have your lettuce, it will put lead in your pencil

I didn't know this! I quote:

Lettuce has been harvested for millenia—it was depicted by ancient Egyptians on the walls of tombs dating back to at least 2,700 B.C. The earliest version of the greens resembled two modern lettuces: romaine, from the French word “romaine” (from Rome), and cos lettuce, believed to have been found on the island of Kos, located along the coast of modern day Turkey. 

But in Ancient Egypt around 2,000 B.C., lettuce was not a popular appetizer, it was an aphrodisiac, a phallic symbol that represented the celebrated food of the Egyptian god of fertility, Min. (It is unclear whether the lettuce’s development in Egypt predates its appearance on the island of Kos.) The god, often pictured with an erect penis in wall paintings and reliefs was also known as the “great of love” as he is called in a text from Edfu Temple. The plant was believed to help the god “perform the sexual act untiringly.”

I think teenagers will be more happy to eat this if they are told that its going to help them boink!

I saw Min in the Petrie Museum the other weekend.

people were not very happy with the display of the erect Phallus and when it was first displayed in the early 20th century, it was covered by a label!

Interestingly, for many many years, the idea of seeing the nude was anathema to Europe. We have so many instances that nude statues or even examples of Min like the above had the phallus hidden. I came across another article here. The abstract:

This essay proposes that we question the current understanding of the Italian Renaissance nude by examining contemporaries’ perceptions of nakedness. Despite the importance of the nude for the development of Western art, there have been few studies that consider how the revival of the nude form in  fifteenth-century Italy was understood by people at the time.Most scholars, understandably, see the new fashion for portraying naked figures in the fifteenth century as a direct reflection of the enthusiasm for classical antiquity during this era. Without denying the crucial importance of antique precedents, I wish here to investigate another possibility: that travellers’ accounts of naked natives encountered on European voyages of exploration, particularly those to sub-Saharan Africa, influenced the creation of what has been called a ‘Renaissance anthropology’ – debates about the nature of mankind.This provided a new conceptual filter through which the nude figure was seen – and in some cases, these accounts may have directly affected the iconography of otherwise puzzling images.

Here’s an example of an iconic image

Masaccio, Expulsion from
Paradise, 1426. Fresco, 208 ×
88cm. Florence: Brancacci
Chapel, Santa Maria del
Carmine

Interesting how our ideas of nudity change…this painting is in a chapel! So the painting was painted in 1425. Then around the 18th century, Cosimo Medici asked for fig leaves to be painted on the genitals to hide them. Then in 1980, the painting was cleaned and the fig leaves removed.

Aethelflaed: Iron Lady of Mercia

An example of another Iron Lady, poignant when another Iron Lady, Margaret Thatcher just died. Interesting character kids. And one which isn't taught enough in history. Fascinating. 

We live in London and this place is absolutely drenched in history. Battles were fought few kilometres from our homes between the Romans and native tribes. 

Fascinating

Love

Baba

Aethelflaed: Iron Lady of Mercia | Alex Burghart - Academia.edu
http://www.academia.edu/3214814/Aethelflaed_Iron_Lady_of_Mercia

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Æthelflæd: of Mercia warrior queen 60 BBC History Magazine Anglo-Saxon kings Viking victory Æthelflæd was a far superior ruler to her husband Æthelred, and made Mercia a kingdom to be feared, repelling foes from her borders and bringing unruly neighbours under her control Her deeds are largely forgotten, but as Alex Burghart explains, Æthelflæd turned a cornered kingdom into a powerhouse that defeated the Welsh and the Vikings xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx A ALAMY nglo-Saxon history is full of forgotten heroes. This year marks the 1100th anniversary of the accession of one of the most forgotten and, in some ways, one of the most remarkable. In 911, Æthelflæd, daughter of King Alfred the Great (871-99), succeeded her husband, Æthelred, as ruler of the midland realm of Mercia. In doing so she became one of the only Anglo-Saxon women to rule in her own right, and a key player in the period that would shape the formation of England. Rarely has British politics been so turbulent as it was in the late ninth and early tenth centuries. In 866 a huge Danish force had landed in eastern England and started, systematically, to occupy regions and kill kings. By 877 roughly all the territories to the east of Watling Street (the A2) – the kingdoms of Essex and East Anglia, East Mercia (the east Midlands), Lindsey (Lincolnshire) and Northumbria – lay in Danish hands. Nor were they the only hostile power. From early in the ninth century Norse Vikings (from Norway and no friends to the Danes) had established bases in Ireland and were using them as springboards to launch forays on mainland Britain, attacking and sometimes allying themselves with the Welsh kingdoms. Anglo-Saxon England appeared to be on the brink of becoming AngloScandinavian England. It was under these pressures – and others from the Welsh kingdoms to the west – that, in about 879, Æthelred, the new leader of the remaining Mercians, chose to submit to King Alfred of Wessex. Asser, Alfred’s biographer, says that Æthelred agreed ‘that in every respect he would be obedient to the royal will’, and it seems that he was as good as his word. In our sources, Æthelred is never called ‘king’ only ‘ealdorman’ or ‘lord’ – there was to be one king: Alfred, and it is his name alone which appears on the royal charters and coins of the time. So seriously did Alfred take this new alliance that he gave his eldest daughter, Æthelflæd, to Æthelred in marriage. Exactly when this happened is not known

Letter from Italy: Slippery Business

Dear son

My friend Vikram Doctor shared this with me. As you know we cook with olive oil assuming that its nice and healthy. As it turns out, the world of olive oil is full of dodgy characters. And extra virgin is not so virginal at all

So why am I sending this to you? For you to see how government subsidies and rules distort the marketplace. And why a dis functional government can really screw up basic operating principles of a good society and economy. 

Fraud and crime is not stoppable. But incentives like subsidies etc will always encourage crime. And think of one statement. You can make more money and be punished less by stuff like this than by pushing drugs!

Fascinating. 

Love 

Baba

Letter from Italy: Slippery Business : The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/08/13/070813fa_fact_mueller

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On August 10, 1991, a rusty tanker called the Mazal II docked at the industrial port of Ordu, in Turkey, and pumped twenty-two hundred tons of hazelnut oil into its hold. The ship then embarked on a meandering voyage through the Mediterranean and the North Sea. By September 21st, when the Mazal II reached Barletta, a port in Puglia, in southern Italy, its cargo had become, on the ship’s official documents, Greek olive oil. It slipped through customs, possibly with the connivance of an official, was piped into tanker trucks, and was delivered to the refinery of Riolio, an Italian olive-oil producer based in Barletta. There it was sold—in some instances blended with real olive oil—to Riolio customers.

Between August and November of 1991, the Mazal II and another tanker, the Katerina T., delivered nearly ten thousand tons of Turkish hazelnut oil and Argentinean sunflower-seed oil to Riolio, all identified as Greek olive oil. Riolio’s owner, Domenico Ribatti, grew rich from the bogus oil, assembling substantial real-estate holdings, including a former department store in Bari. He bribed two officials, one with cash, the other with cartons of olive oil, and made trips to Rome, where he stayed at the Grand Hotel, and met with other unscrupulous olive-oil producers from Italy and abroad. As one of Italy’s leading importers of olive oil, Ribatti’s company was a member of ASSITOL, the country’s powerful olive-oil trade association, and Ribatti had enough clout in Rome to ask a favor—preferential treatment of an associate’s nephew, who was seeking admission to a military officers’ school—of a high-ranking official at the Finance Ministry, a fellow-pugliese.

However, by early 1992 Ribatti and his associates were under investigation by the Guardia di Finanza, the Finance Ministry’s military-police force. One officer, wearing a miniature video camera on his tie, posed as a waiter at a lunch hosted by Ribatti at the Grand Hotel. Others, eavesdropping on telephone calls among Riolio executives, heard the rustle of bribe money being counted out. During the next two years, the Guardia di Finanza team, working closely with agents of the European Union’s anti-fraud office, pieced together the details of Ribatti’s crime, identifying Swiss bank accounts and Caribbean shell companies that Ribatti had used to buy the ersatz olive oil. The investigators discovered that seed and hazelnut oil had reached Riolio’s refinery by tanker truck and by train, as well as by ship, and they found stocks of hazelnut oil waiting in Rotterdam for delivery to Riolio and other olive-oil companies.

The investigators also discovered where Ribatti’s adulterated oil had gone: to some of the largest producers of Italian olive oil, among them Nestlé, Unilever, Bertolli, and Oleifici Fasanesi, who sold it to consumers as olive oil, and collected about twelve million dollars in E.U. subsidies intended to support the olive-oil industry. (These companies claimed that they had been swindled by Ribatti, and prosecutors were unable to prove complicity on their part.)

In 1997 and 1998, olive oil was the most adulterated agricultural product in the European Union, prompting the E.U.’s anti-fraud office to establish an olive-oil task force. (“Profits were comparable to cocaine trafficking, with none of the risks,” one investigator told me.) The E.U. also began phasing out subsidies for olive-oil producers and bottlers, in an effort to reduce crime, and after a few years it disbanded the task force. Yet fraud remains a major international problem: olive oil is far more valuable than most other vegetable oils, but it is costly and time-consuming to produce—and surprisingly easy to doctor. Adulteration is especially common in Italy, the world’s leading importer, consumer, and exporter of olive oil. (For the past ten years, Spain has produced more oil than Italy, but much of it is shipped to Italy for packaging and is sold, legally, as Italian oil.) “The vast majority of frauds uncovered in the food-and-beverage sector involve this product,” Colonel Leopoldo Maria De Filippi, the commander for the northern half of Italy of the N.A.S. Carabinieri, an anti-adulteration group run under the auspices of the Ministry of Health, told me.

St. Peter's Basilica

This church has quite a lot of personal links to me son. It has the grave of saint Peter, one of the most astounding and amazing men. Fascinating history. His fierce courage faith drive ambition is extraordinary. 

Second is the fact that one of my heros, Michelangelo worked here for many moons. What a man. Renaissance man indeed. A painter, sculptor engineer poet and and and. What amazing skills and experience son. 

Then the sheer architectural beauty of this building. Architecture is painting with bricks and mortar and sometimes much more difficult. This extraordinary building is truly beautiful. Shows a wonderful confluence of art architecture Etc etc. 

Then there is the history. A very large part of the world's history was driven from this building son. Popes and people who desired Christianity's blessing influenced events across the world. 

And then you have the faith of billions of Christians who came here to worship and pray. The stones literally hum with emotions. 

You were tiny when we took you there in your little pram. We asked for Gods blessing for you under Michelangelo's dome and Bernini's magnificent pillars. Do go there again son with your wife and your children and ask for blessings again. 

Love

Baba

St. Peter's Basilica - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Peter%27s_Basilica

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Some weirdest Roman laws

I stumbled upon this site which talked about some laws in Roman times. Some of the really strange ones:

 

(1) Women are forbidden to interfere in every kind of business matters and obligations, in behalf of males, as well as of females.

(3) Money lent on bottomry can bear any amount of interest as long as the vessel sails, on account of the risk assumed by the creditor.

(8) An absent man can marry a wife; an absent woman, however, cannot marry.

(1) A man cannot keep a concubine at the same time that he has a wife.....¹ Hence a concubine differs from a wife only in the fact that she is entertained for pleasure.

(1) A man cannot keep a concubine at the same time that he has a wife.....¹ Hence a concubine differs from a wife only in the fact that she is entertained for pleasure.

(1) A dowry either precedes or follows marriage, and hence it can be given either before or after the ceremony, but where it is given before marriage it anticipates its occurrence.

(10) It should be noted that two adulterers can be accused at the same time with the wife, but more than that number cannot be.

(11) It has been decided that adultery cannot be committed with women who have charge of any business or shop.

(12) Anyone who debauches a male who is free, against his consent, shall be punished with death.

(14) It has been held that women convicted of adultery shall be punished with the loss of half of their dowry and the third of their estates, and by relegation to an island. The adulterer, however, shall be deprived of half his property, and shall also be punished by relegation to an island; provided the parties are exiled to different islands.

(16) Fornication committed with female slaves, unless they are deteriorated in value or an attempt is made against their mistress through them, is not considered an injury.

(36) Anyone who steals his own property is not liable in the action of theft, provided that in doing so he does not injure another.

How to increase wages?

Restrict supply.

What do you think will happen if the supply is restricted while demand for services will grow? Prices will go up.

Mario Monti is trying to liberalise professions in Italy and is facing fierce resistance.

Keep an eye out on the professional guilds and groups, one of the reasons why your medical costs, your legal costs, your transportation costs, your healthcare costs, your house costs, etc. etc. are going up is because the professional bodies restrict entry into their professions…

Let my people go!

‘Veni, Vidi, Vici’ patented in Turkey

lol. This is amusing. I quote from here.

The municipality of Zile in the northern province of Tokat has announced the acquisition of the Turkish patent license for the Roman Emperor Julius Caesar’s famous saying “Veni Vidi Vici” which is believed to have been uttered in district’s 4,000-year-old castle.
It took two and a half years to acquire the patent, Mayor Lütfi Vidinel said.
“The copyright of the phrase belongs to our municipality for the following 10 years. We are planning to renew it every decade. A global tobacco company is using this phrase as part of its brand logo and we are planning to contact them and ask for our copyright share for the use of the phrase. We will allocate the funds we raise for the fight against tobacco use,” Vidinel said.
In May 47 B.C., Caesar defeated Pharnaces of Pontus near the town of Zile. He claimed he captured the enemy in four hours. To inform the Roman Senate of his victory, Caesar succinctly wrote, “veni, vidi, vici” (I came, I saw, I conquered).

I am not sure what is more amusing, the Turkish Patent Office, or this Mayor’s chutzpah (Can I use Jewish terms now for Turkish aspects?) or the idea of patenting somebody’s speech in a geographic location.

Vegetius–the ancient Roman War Chronicler

You might have heard about Clausewitz or Sun Tzu and a whole host of other people who wrote on war, son. Vegetius was one of the ancient Roman historians. While there are debates about how good a writer he was, his book, De Re Militari, is a good exposition on how the early Roman Empire came to being. One can argue that the Roman military was one of the most successful in the world. So what did he say as general advice? Here are some of his maxims.

• “Men must be sufficiently tried before they are led against the enemy.
• Valour is superior to numbers.
• The nature of the ground is often of more consequence than courage.
• Few men are born brave; many become so through care and force of discipline.
• An army is strengthened by labour and enervated by idleness.
• Troops are not to be led to battle unless confident of success.
• An army unsupplied with grain and other necessary provisions will be vanquished without striking a blow.
• A general whose troops are superior both in number and bravery should engage in the oblong square, which is the first formation.
• He who judges himself inferior should advance his right wing obliquely against the enemy's left. This is the second formation.
• If your left wing is strongest, you must attack the enemy's right according to the third formation.
• The general who can depend on the discipline of his men should begin the engagement by attacking both the enemy's wings at once, the fourth formation.
• He whose light infantry is good should cover his centre by forming them in its front and charge both the enemy's wings at once. This is the fifth formation.
• He who cannot depend either on the number or courage of his troops, if obliged to engage, should begin the action with his right and endeavour to break the enemy's left, the rest of his army remaining formed in a line perpendicular to the front and extended to the rear like a javelin. This is the sixth formation.
• If your forces are few and weak in comparison to the enemy,you must make use of the seventh formation and cover one of your flanks either with an eminence, a city, the sea, a river or some protection of that kind.
• When an enemy's spy lurks in the camp, order all your soldiers in the day time to their tents, and he will instantly be apprehended.
• Consult with many on proper measures to be taken, but communicate the plans you intend to put in execution to few, and those only of the most assured fidelity; or rather trust no one but yourself.
• Punishment, and fear thereof, are necessary to keep soldiers in order in quarters; but in the field they are more influenced by hope and rewards.
• Good officers never engage in general actions unless induced by opportunity or obliged by necessity.”

You can see quite a lot of these maxims are dedicated to internal army organisation but some of these general points apply in real life as well, son.

For example, the first one is important, train your team before putting them into operations. By itself, size is of no matter, the courage and individual matters much more. Unfortunately, by itself, the individual or even the collection cant do much when we are talking about the nature of the ground – in business we refer to this as the macro economic environment or the regulatory landscape. Few men are born brave, but care, discipline and training can improve your staff members hugely. And so on and so forth.

The Roman Legions were a formidable force and has been fairly well documented as compared to other ancient armies such as of the Greeks, Egyptians, Sumerians, etc. Much to learn from them, son, much to learn. Much of western civilisation has descended from what these Roman Leaders and legions did.

Dalai Lama is the Taliban Political Guide

Thanks for this, John, lol. I think the Italians need to invest in some english translation skills, lol.

from here.

TIBET: DALAI LAMA WILL GIVE UP HIS POLITICAL ROLE

07:16 10 MAR 2011
(AGI) Dharamshala - The Dalai Lama announced his intention to resign from his role as the Taliban's political guide. The 75-year-old Peace Nobel Laureate explained that the time has come to make room for his successor, to be freely elected, and is considering an amendment that might allow him to resign from his political appointment, to be discussed in next week's meeting of Tibet's exiled Parliament. . .

Italy Post Office May Depend on Nepotism to Cut Costs

This made me blink. I quote:

Italy’s postal service, the country’s biggest employer, has proposed an innovative way to cut costs and usher out older workers: nepotism. Under a draft plan detailed to unions, postal workers at 140 branches who agree to early retirement can cede permanent job contracts to their children. The “heir” must be at least 30 years old with a high school diploma. Talks on the policy are at an “advanced stage,” and it could be implemented by early October, said Walter de Candiziis, head of Failp-Cisal, the union that first suggested the plan in 1997.

Under the new proposal, postal workers can deliver job security to their kids, at a time when most Italian companies are shying away from offering such jobs for life. For employers, the permanent contracts are difficult to break when staff cuts are needed and they require more generous social-security contributions that increase as the worker ages.

Presumably the idea of just cutting the jobs would not apply, eh?

This is also interesting and I didn't know this.

Nepotism has deep roots in Italy. The word derives from the Latin for nephew and has its origins in the practice of popes elevating their nephews to the position of cardinal to create papal dynasties.

Local health sector deficits to be made up from local taxes

Now this is an interesting perspective. If a region in Italy goes into health care deficit, then it has to raise local taxes to pay for it. Sort of makes sense, no? You spends it, you pays for it so to say. But the situation in England is different, we pay for the NHS out of country wide tax take. For example, we now have regional development agencies in England, which roughly correspond to the regions of NHS. Why dont we force them to look at local funding versus local taxes? Localisation is good. It will force local people to think more about their health. For example, the health figures for Scotland are bad, do you think if we force Scotland to raise money to cover the local health spend, that would make a difference?

It wont happen as there are quite a lot of issues with this, but as a general principle, closer the taxes and spend are, the better the management.