Fun fact: back in 1600s the Swedish government wanted to make our old history grander than perhaps it had been. As part of that they instituted a law that if you find gold or ancient things on your grounds you would be paid more than the worth of it if you brought it in: https://www.icomos.se/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/1666-Placat... It lead to many treasures reaching museums etc instead of being melted down! It's st…
There’s a reason Nordic countries do so well and are a real “first world”. They’re smart. In the good sense.
Similar thing in Tunisia where if ruins are found, the government will own the site. Theoretically, it should compensate the owners for their loss, but practically they pay peanuts. So if people find ruins in their lands, they just hide it/throw it/bury it.
There is a phrase "Shoot, shovel, shutup" used in the US whenever anything is found on private property (usually endangered animals) that the government has an interest in protecting/restricting. The owners will destroy it immediately and before anyone finds out so that they don't lose their property rights. Thus you have the unintended consequences that these regulations accelerate rather than mitigate their destruc…
The solution is for the government to pay the actual cost of the regulations instead of making the property owner eat most of it.
The reality is either you (the policymaker) find it important enough to bear the cost or it's not important enough for anyone to do it. The Swedish solution in the sibling comment demonstrates the right mindset.
> To William’s complete lack of surprise, the little cellar under the shed was much better built than the shed itself. But then, practically everywhere in Ankh-Morpork had cellars that were once the first or even second or third floors of ancient buildings, built at the time of one of the city’s empires when men thought that the future was going to last for ever. And then the river had flooded and brought mud with it…
Old cities used to just level old buildings and build on top of the rubble.
But that doesn’t work if you need to support a skyscraper (not if you want it to stay upright), or dig a metro line, so new developments are now excavating the old rubble.
As an American, where we have comparatively little history (we’re celebrating 250 years - some folks in Europe live in houses older than that!) visiting Rome is almost mind blowing to see SO MUCH ancient history right there, and almost everywhere. So cool!
> we have comparatively little history (we’re celebrating 250 years) You didn't exactly say this, but I'd stop short of defining history around the existence of the current US government and structure. Ironically 250 years is probably longer than any continental European government has been around in its present state. In terms of history as such, we have just as much history in the US as Europe does. Just ask the Na…
There are several levels of understanding of your history. Firstly, you have none. At the second level you suffer the misapprehension that your country has been there forever (which is the level that most nationalists get stuck at).
There is a phrase "Shoot, shovel, shutup" used in the US whenever anything is found on private property (usually endangered animals) that the government has an interest in protecting/restricting. The owners will destroy it immediately and before anyone finds out so that they don't lose their property rights. Thus you have the unintended consequences that these regulations accelerate rather than mitigate their destruc…
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> Newsom has spent $14.8B over the past 18 years and it has zero operational miles of fast train.
Newsom was elected Governor in 2019. And no, it was never expected to be operational any time soon. Also, buying up hundreds of parcels of land (many presenting legal hurdles and eminent domain lawsuits, etc takes years. Then there's years to be spent building massive concrete aquaducts and bridges.
> To William’s complete lack of surprise, the little cellar under the shed was much better built than the shed itself. But then, practically everywhere in Ankh-Morpork had cellars that were once the first or even second or third floors of ancient buildings, built at the time of one of the city’s empires when men thought that the future was going to last for ever. And then the river had flooded and brought mud with it…
For a modern example, see the Raising of Chicago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_of_Chicago . I think I've seen an image of what the old ground level looks like now, and / or that you can take tours there. There's probably loads of stuff buried there now. Edit: Actually it was Seattle, you can still visit its old ground level: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Underground
> Teotihuacan, the largest city in the Western Hemisphere at the time Jesus walked on the Earth. It was 20 square kilometers whereas Rome at the height of the empire had only 14 square kilometers within the Aurelian Walls. ...so what? Why would you compare "the size of Teotihuacan" to "the area enclosed in the Aurelian Walls"? Why not compare it to "the size of Rome"? I can think of one reason you'd do this...
Huh? Not the OP, but I have heard that Rome is defined by the seven hills, so I thought the Aurelian Wall definition was excluding a hill or something. The Wikipedia article says the walls cover all seven hills and the Campus Martius: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurelian_Walls Are you saying you'd include even more in "the size of Rome (the city)"? If so, what?
There were some people living outside that perimeter, but I just included the Seven Hills and the Campus Martius because it was a typical border for the city and was densely packed with maybe a million people. Teotihuacan possibly had up to 200,000 people, so a bit more breathing room.
> The students who found a way into the ruins weren’t the first amateur explorers to rediscover the site. Some of the graffiti scrawled on the walls of the villa dates to between 1920 and 1950, when the building was occupied by a religious order. Other markings are more recent, perhaps left by students at the high school