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Teenagers Stayed Overnight at Their School and Found Hidden Ancient Roman Ruins

smithsonianmag.com

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Re: Teenagers Stayed Overnight at Their School and Found Hidden Ancient Roman Ruins

#111

Post by alsetmusic »

Lio wrote: post #104
0xblinq wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a reason Nordic countries do so well and are a real “first world”. They’re smart. In the good sense.

“First world”? First world is a political term meaning non-aligned with the West or Communist states during the Cold War. Historically, Sweden was a non-aligned country. The very definition of a “third-world” country.

It's more nuanced than that. First was the USA, the first nuclear state (and the west / allies). Then the Soviets. The Third World was the anticipated rise of the nations that would join us on the world stage, a hopeful and optimistic term[0]. Then we deliberately sabotaged them and kept them under our boot to extract resources.

Third World is now a slight for developing nations.

0. The Jakarta Method (Vincent Bevins) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jakarta_Method

Re: Teenagers Stayed Overnight at Their School and Found Hidden Ancient Roman Ruins

#112

Post by alsetmusic »

rcbdev wrote: post #103
NuclearPM wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a weird comment.

I'd argue that this (your) comment is much weirder. Could you provide a reason or point us at least to what you find so particularly weird?

The commenter doesn't recognize that nordic countries have exceptionally high quality of life despite less sunlight (a common cause of depression) than whatever country in which they likely reside. They aren't curious about the world enough to learn about others.

Re: Teenagers Stayed Overnight at Their School and Found Hidden Ancient Roman Ruins

#113

Post by alsetmusic »

stephenhuey wrote: post #26
DougN7 wrote: post #21

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!

Comparatively few historical ruins built out of materials that would have lasted this long, but a long history, actually, and some you can still see... Mexico City is a quick plane ride from the USA, and while some of their ruins are buried, you can hop a short bus ride outside the city to walk among standing ruins of Teotihuacan, the largest city in the Western Hemisphere at the time Jesus walked on the Earth. It wa…

I see someone who might really enjoy the Fall of Civilizations podcast. Check it out. I love it.

Re: Teenagers Stayed Overnight at Their School and Found Hidden Ancient Roman Ruins

#114

Post by alsetmusic »

kakacik wrote: post #74
Swizec wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (we’re celebrating 250 years - some folks in Europe live in houses older than that!) We used to smoke weed on the roman wall behind my friend’s high school. Very popular hangout spot. Lots of people using it for rock climbing practice (you’re not far off the ground and can climb laterally for hundreds of meters). The local castle, about 1000 years old, is a popular makeout spot for teens.

Stuff built long time ago still serves its purpose - the people. Anyway yes we have some comparatively old stuff here, you get used to it quickly. Colleague lives in cca 400 years old house, nothing special. Just more building restrictions, not because its somehow protected but simply due to meter-thick stone walls and corresponding architecture, statics and so on. One couldn't tell if its 100 years old or 400 from o…

> meter-thick stone walls

Wifi must be a nightmare. Very interesting to think about. Every building I've lived in is plaster and wood beams and I get annoyed when audio starts dropping / distorting on BT earbuds at a distance.

Re: Teenagers Stayed Overnight at Their School and Found Hidden Ancient Roman Ruins

#115

Post by alsetmusic »

dqv wrote: post #61
inigyou wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? My history class taught me that before the Europeans arrived there were only the native americans, so nothing of historical value.

I had always thought I didn't like history. It was just so incredibly boring. Later in life, I found out why. It's not that I didn't like history, I just don't like the sanitized version taught to me in primary/secondary school. It's like corporate public relations where they vaguely acknowledge wrongdoing, but communicate in a very weaselly way to downplay it. The rote response I hear from the USA fandom is always s…

> I had always thought I didn't like history. It was just so incredibly boring.

I had an early-midlife crisis where I considered moving to another profession. After a great deal of thought, I determined that the profession that I would find most rewarding would be as a professor of history for university students. If I could share my passion for history in such a way as to inspire one student per semester, I'd have achieved something great.

It makes me sad that history is taught in such boring terms in high school. It's endlessly interesting. I hated school far too much to realistically believe I'd earn the required accreditation, hence I remained a tech guy.

Check out "Lies My Teachers Told Me." A university professor wrote it after becoming frustrated at how much deprogramming had to be done with incoming college students. I saw it in a used book store and immediately bought it. I liked it.

Re: Teenagers Stayed Overnight at Their School and Found Hidden Ancient Roman Ruins

#116

Post by alsetmusic »

inigyou wrote: post #40
mothballed wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The adobe structures of the American southwest, and mounds in many other areas survived, but for the most part there was not much left of historical value in terms of ruins of structures of the native americans. Europeans more often build with stones, rock, brick, etc and more regularly other more survivable building materials.

You might have missed the sarcasm

> You might have missed the sarcasm

I didn't. It's pretty frustrating how many people on the internet can't infer intent. I upvoted your clearly absurdist statement because I got it.

Sadly, that's the modern internet. Enough people are incurious and bigoted so as to make absurd statements appear genuine.

On an up-note: at least one person understood your snark and appreciated it for what it was.

Re: Teenagers Stayed Overnight at Their School and Found Hidden Ancient Roman Ruins

#117

Post by [deleted] »

Lio wrote: post #104
0xblinq wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s a reason Nordic countries do so well and are a real “first world”. They’re smart. In the good sense.

“First world”? First world is a political term meaning non-aligned with the West or Communist states during the Cold War. Historically, Sweden was a non-aligned country. The very definition of a “third-world” country.

[deleted]

Re: Teenagers Stayed Overnight at Their School and Found Hidden Ancient Roman Ruins

#118

Post by BobbyTables2 »

Torkel wrote: post #72
mothballed wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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…

Surprised that didn’t inspire people to purchase gold/artifacts and bury them on their property…
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