All I've got today is an announcement.

It's time for a change. C99 is going to get a face lift. No, scratch that, a totally new face.

We're going to get a new site. It will be different than this site. How different I can't say yet, but it will be significantly different. It will still be a blog with essays and a comment section but with a new look.

Wondering about the goals of the recent terror attacks? Well what happened after the 9/11 attacks? We got the war on terror that came with the patriot act. Why pass laws that cut down on our civil liberties after it was we the people who were attacked just so that the PTB could look for terrorists in America?

The Decline of the Eastern, aka Byzantine, Roman Empire

I happened across an article about the decline of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire a week or so ago and found it quite interesting. It's called 'What Brought the Decline of the Eastern Roman Empire - and What Can We Learn from It?' by Lev Cosijns and Haggai Olshanetsky.

Basically, the authors contend that the supposed decline does not seem to be a result of climate change. Yes, a volcano exploded in Iceland in 536 AD (and others erupted throughout the following decade) and the volcanic dust, etc, did block the sun in various places and perhaps caused a lowering of temperature - maybe around the world, maybe not. But there aren't any textual records of this happening (dust veils and extreme cold) in the Eastern (Byzantine) empire in the mid 500's.

The authors note that first instance of the Justinianic plague in the Eastern Empire happened from 541 to 544. This supposedly caused the death of millions of people in the Mediterranean (and other) areas. However, the authors of the paper don't think the plague started the decline of the Eastern Empire. In fact they see the 6th C as one of prosperity with economic stability for the Eastern Empire.

Detail of a contemporary portrait of Justinian I in the Basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna. Nice earrings! From worldhistory.org

I see your hair is burnin'
Hills are filled with fire
If they say I never loved you
You know they are a liar

The whole world is watching our hills that are filled with fire.

This is a sort of footnote diary, for clarification. I wrote three pieces on "popular music in the Sixties and Seventies: brief critical theory." They were fun to write, but I wasn't sure that regular readers of C99% liked them or were merely pissed off. Should I continue?

On this day 10 years ago, at 7:17 PM, I officially logged into my admin account after it was uploaded to our server. That was the start of it all and here we are still standing!

Thanks to everyone hanging with us, figuratively not literally, heh.

Happy 10th Anniversary c99!

PS: I have some big news pertaining to c99, but I'm going to keep you in suspense and wait until my Friday open thread to clue you all in.