Open Thread - Thurs 08 Jan 2026 - Yeesh
Yeesh
I was hoping 2026 would be better than 2025, but, the first week of January 2026 makes it clear that at least with world-wide happenings, that was just wishful thinking. I'm not a Madero fan, but I'm also not a fan of kidnapping another country's leader. And the heightened threats against... Greenland? Good grief! Stay the hell away from Greenland. No invading, no seizing, no 'buying'. Stay away!
So, I'm presenting some interesting things that have to do with archaeology and not with world politics. At least, modern world politics.
Fire!
Evidence has been found in England that Neanderthals were making and using fires some 400,000 years ago. This is like 350,000 years older than the next oldest evidence of human fire making. Here's a very good BBC presentation/article about the finds.
Romans!
A Roman sailor's tombstone, from 1900 years ago, was recently found in a backyard in New Orleans. The sailor served in the Mediterranean fleet of the Empire and was based out of Misenum (near Naples). No, not OUR empire, but the Roman one. Apparently the tombstone was taken from a museum in Italy which had been bombed out and destroyed by the allies in WWII. But, experts still aren't certain how it arrived in New Orleans.
Huge shoes, and I do mean huge, were found at the Roman fort of Magna in Northumberland, England. The shoes are Roman, and about 11.8 inches long, a men's UK size 13-14 (US 14-15). These shoes probably belonged to members of a specialist unit in the Roman army, although we don't know which unit that might have been (yet). I'm thinking a basketball unit, right? 
Three Amphorae with thousands of Roman coins in them were recently found in France (aka, Gaul). Two of the amphorae were full of coins, and weighed around 100 lbs. One of the 'savings' banks (amphorae) had been cleared out in Roman times, it seems, and only had three coins in it. The amphorae and coins are about 1700 or more years old, and were probably placed under a house around 280-310 AD. It doesn't seem that these were part of a hoard hidden in haste under distressing circumstances, but rather something to do with savings.
Ok, enough of the archaeology stuff . Here's the open thread! What's up, whatcha doing? Reading? Thinking? Listening to? Remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!
Comments
Not a history buff
but archeology is an interesting study
in societal evolution, given the interpretations
of artifacts and clues available to modern researchers.
What's a couple thousand years in the history of records?
Of more contemporary analysis: ICE remorselessly shooting
unarmed civilians, "buying" Greenland for national security
reasons (not playing well in Denmark) and the mockery of
justice in the case of Maduro. The bluffer in chief can not seem
to escape his wake.
Yeesh indeed.
Thanks for the OT!
Zionism is a social disease
When I was young...
I thought I was learning about old times through archaeology. And I was. But, 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'. It's weird to realize how much empires are the same in so many ways and to see the rises, changes, and eventual falls which happened in history, happening now.
Thanks for the good music. Have a good Friday and weekend!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Happy birthday (anniversary) to D. Bowie
.
.
Zionism is a social disease
Good morning...
Thank for the archeology nuggets, interesting. I hold the notion that we almost always underestimate the accomplishments and intelligence of the the ancients.
Bet the Roman coins were silver, and with silver at $80 US and $120 in China/oz (plus the antiquity) they are very valuable. BTW if you were to sell silver, to whom would you sell? The US or China. It isn't by mistake. The are paying a premium in order to accumulate more. My understanding is there's 30lbs of silver in every patriot missile. Additionally China who processes 60% of all the world's silver is limiting export.
Thanks for the OT!
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I would think
you can't take gold or silver across the border.
"BTW if you were to sell silver, to whom would you sell?"
How would you even sell silver to China anyway? Walk into the Chinese Embassy with a pound of silver?
Good luck with that.
Is it even legal (or wise) for an American citizen to go into a Chinese Embassy in todays security mad climate?
Or any foreign embassy for that matter.
In the coin and precious metal circles I frequent, the talk is of Trump declaring PMs to be a national security issue, and demand confiscation of all private ownership.
It's been done before, back in the Roosevelt administration.
A lot of unfortunate boating accidents going to be happening this year, and next, or until a regime change.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Are you saying
a pound of gold stashed in your jeans
may set-off metal detectors at the border?
Zionism is a social disease
It is metal afterall
They use metal detectors to find gold all the time. Have you never watched Aussie Gold Hunters on TV?
And who would have the courage (or stupidity) to risk having it confiscated either leaving the country or the country you are trying to take it into?
This really is a serious question. Does anyone here have the experience of moving large amounts of PM (say, a pound or more) across borders?
Otherwise, no matter how much PM we stack, it will always be subject to confiscation with a keystroke.
Kind of like all of our personal belongings, does it ever really belong to us?
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
does anything belong to us?
only as long as it is not confiscated
pending a 'criminal' investigation
which we are all subjected to
Zionism is a social disease
If you are in possesion of
lot of cash, anywhere in the US, say, that $5,000 cash you are taking to a casino, the cash can be confiscated, presumed to be illegal drug/some shit money, if you are pulled over for a traffic ticket.
I don't worry about international travel as much as I do taking cash to my local bank.
Still, I do wonder how anyone can sell their precious metals to countries that will pay a premium price.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Like that guy taking cash from/to Nevada (I think it was)...
to help his daughter buy a house and the cops stopped him. Took his cash and never changed him with any crime or anything, but the Feds kept his cash until he won a court order for them to give it back...
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
In the past,
a PM hassle would primarily be carried out at Customs and Immigration in the destination country. The customs forms I've seen for years always have a section specifying the limits on how much one can carry in terms of cash, other hard currency, trade goods, and "financial instruments"- and going beyond that limit will generally lead to having it disappeared.
Now, we are talking about the current US here, so I'm sure that the folks running the various X-ray machines and pornoscanners will be well tuned up to find that sort of thing, so that our gummint can steal it, rather than letting the furriners steal it. And Gawd only knows that it'd be a safety issue: you might club a flight attendant with it, while you are carving them to death with your nail clippers.
So I would advise against trying to fly commercial with PMs, on principle. Popping them into a locker on a small boat, and flying the Q flag in the first foreign port that you hit, might be the least risky way to carry those Krugerrands elsewhere, what with things being what they are these days. They are kinda like ballast, after all...
Or you could just become filthy rich, and then you could do whatever the hell you want, without limit: chuck 'em into the baggage compartment on your Gulfstream with your golf clubs and a case of Cristal, and go party with the WEF people. But for us little people, the hassles will just keep coming.
I suspect that any attempt at PM confiscation might run into somewhat more trouble these days, what with all the preppers that have been hoarding PMs and ammo in more or less equal amounts. I don't think that those fine folks will go meekly along with the idea of it being a Great Patriotic Duty to give it all to Da Gummint, at least without there being a few hellacious firefights along the way. The problem with doing the Roosevelt thing of "Don't you know that there's a war on?" is that there's has *always* been a war on... That old saw has well and truly expired.
Note to the humor-impaired: This Is Snark. Barely.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
You are seriously funny
remember once coming back thru customs
from Tijuana to San Diego. Somehow got flagged.
The authorities combed thru everything on board
and found a pipe I had lost a few years hence and
an old roach. Got a stern talking to, but they let me
go thru - sans pipe and roach. Pretty sure it was
entered into my permanent record.
Tend to not cross 'borders' much anymore.
Probably now classified more as a security threat than
(at the time) a subversive radical hippie?
Zionism is a social disease
Thanks!
I'm here 'til Thursday. Try the veal.
Oh shit: it *is* Thursday, isn't it. Well then: can somebody help me with this damned cummerbund?
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
This made me laugh
but it's probably true. Sheez!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
I think your notion about how
we underestimate most everyone/thing in archaeology/history is pretty much completely true. We do it with 'animals' too. After all we've finally realized that chimps use plants to treat and heal wounds and scratches. I'm pretty sure other animal groups do things like this, if we could recognize it. They are probably thankful we can't :P.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Good morning, sima!
Yeesh is right.
The big footed Roman soldier isn't the Big Foot I expected.
How did those Romans start fires? Hmmm...
A take on the Ice shooting: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/january-7-2026
Ms. Good was not well trained in how to act upon being approached by police. Any one pulled over has to make a quick decision whether to comply or die. On the flip side, as a defense attorney, I'd be trying to work out a plea bargain if I represented the cop. He was not well trained in self-protection.
The bravest people in the country today are unarmed peaceful protesters, not heavily armed police officers.
Other than that, have a fantastic day avoiding the craziness, chica, and thanks for the OT!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
I have always said
that there is something fundamentally flawed about any society in which a citizen's first reaction to the sight of a cop is fear.
We have been there for a long time now, but it is getting much worse as the innate fascistic tendencies of our "leaders" take deeper hold. And, predictably, there exists a subset of the populace who believe that that is just fine, and that the government can do no wrong.
I disagree with those folks. They fail to realize that their own turn in the barrel may indeed come.
I was reading the following submission on Reddit that pretty well illustrates where we are now. A couple was on a cruise on Carnival, and the husband was basically dragged from their cabin by CBP at the Port of Miami, arrested, detained, harassed, and then eventually just dumped out with no apology:
https://archive.ph/wip/LxKNq
Consider, if you will, that Carnival had all of his passport information on file, as a requirement for boarding the cruise: a glimpse at that should have told them that this was not the guy they were looking for. It was just a name match, and nothing more.
This didn't end up as a fatality. Others most assuredly will. We should not be here.
Be very, very careful out there. Our government has now made it quite clear that they will harass and/or kill anyone they damned well please, whenever and whereever they damned well please. Pigs gonna pig.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
And then, there's this jewel:
https://x.com/NuryVittachi/status/2009081172421419106
https://archive.ph/i0mV0
https://archive.ph/FUd1T
The hits just keep on coming. Read 'em and weep. It figures that some of them would be the UN organizations that concern themselves with violence against children- we have to take steps to protect the pedophile-in-chief's supply of nubile young women, after all.
Our full-throated effort to cement our position as "malignant global pariah" proceeds apace.
Twice bitten, permanently shy.
Arendt noted...
...concerning the national socialists and Stalinists that the law is dead to them. Therefore one does not have government or legitimate opposition in the legal sense but only the movement, or as some call it the "party." Such movements are necessarily led by nihilists. The bs about a hundred million deportations (this is a magical number is it not ?) is to signal the death of civil identity before the law. The terror induced is deliberate. It starts with minority populations designated as unacceptable however characterized, and then spreads arbitrarily. The indifference to human civil identity, human rights. human dignity and human life starts with the denigration of human being as having any intrinsic value except that identified as the mythical "volk."
The latest hat prop worn while affecting a cynical concern for law is very Stalinesque. Stalin enjoyed mocking his victims. Especially those who imagined winning an intellectual argument would carry the day. One is to receive the justice of drunken gunfighters in a saloon, or General Custer. The very appearance is intended to elicit the volk essence while mocking and expressing contempt for the audience. Nazis imagined themselves as knights of yore, adhering to a code of valor, while carrying out genocide.
Unfortunately, many critics don't get the connection between imperialism and totalitarianism in terms of the disdain for human rights. That can't happen here right?
己所不欲，勿施于人。
Great comment, Soryang. Thanks.
be well and have a good one.
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
there was book written on that subject
a ways back.
Zionism is a social disease
Sinclair Lewis tried to warn us, but
we didn't listen then and we aren't listening now.
And in any case it's probably too late.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
'The terror induced in deliberate'
So true, so true. Great comment!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Thanks Sima
Sorry I was tied up yesterday. I disgorged that comment, and got busy with ministruvia. Appreciate your OTs, and enjoy reading your archeology posts, a subject I enjoy, but found challenging when I had to take it as an elective.
己所不欲，勿施于人。
For most of my life,
police academy instruction was built around cops protecting citizens and maintaining the peace.
That top priority is no longer taught, not mentioned in their classes. The thin blue line is the ethos and practice that the top safety measure is cop safety. That prioritizes killing folks for that concern for their (cops') safety.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
It's weird that...
all the body cam videos of cops are kinda showing this change as well. How the cops interact with people. Some do a wonderful job even with druggies and drunkards and those with mental illnesses. But so many don't. And the way cops are trained? Why do so many start shouting different orders? How is the person being 'detained' or arrested supposed to know which one to follow? 'Hands on the wheel, hands out the window, hands on your head...' All shouted at about the same time, with guns pointing at you from every direction. Insane.
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Pigs gonna pig..
Very true, sadly!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
I think that Roman unit...
was for sasquatch.
The take on the ice shooting is very informative. This is exactly true 'The bravest people in the country today are unarmed peaceful protesters, not heavily armed police officers.'. Thank you!
Have a great Friday and weekend!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Same wishes for
a great weekend for you and yours, chica!
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
A short educational video
https://rumble.com/vfoc7p-chris-rock-explains-how-to-not-get-your-ass-ki...
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Those were the days
when the worst you had to worry about was a brutal beating. Now they kill first and spin lies about it later.
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
No shit, tom!
This police 'tude is not just ICE. It is city police in the city of 1,200 11 miles from me.
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981
Good morning Sima, thanks for the archaeology news and the OT.
My computer is emulating the orange overlord, it has become unstable. I think that is is some effect of the fact that I use it for conveying news, which I am now trying to minimize or avoid doing,
We have another dry day here, cold, but dry. Perhaps a day to look for a new mattress, why be physiclly uncomfortable as well as mentally and intellectually.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
A good mattress
is one of the keys to a decent sleep.
Which is an important ingredient of a
healthy life process IMO.
Priorities I guess.
Zionism is a social disease
Heh, we postponed that, but it is on the near term agenda.
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
New mattress!
We are getting a new mattress (actually two, for two rooms!) soon as well. As you said, might as well sleep comfortable. Our very old mattress has a hole where we sleep. I swear the dog has to climb to see up over the edge of the thing. Heh.
Hope your computer stabilizes!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Willing but unable
.
give my leftovers to the lost and found department
Zionism is a social disease
another oops
fat fingers?
is why I don't possess touch screen devices
pay no attention to that shadow in the mirror
Zionism is a social disease
Thanks for the archaeology stuff.
I have often wondered why Jesus didn't advise his people to migrate to the New World as the promised land where they would find land and freedom.
I mean, He knew it was there, right? He was the Son of God, who made the world. He must have known.
Hmmm, much to ponder.
Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.
Son of God...
But holding secrets, of course, like all Gods!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so
Kinda funny and off-topic but
.
here it is anyway ..
remember driving into LA at dawn on with a bud
a mission to deliver a car from Detroit (think it was a canary
yellow Firebird) listening to this song on the sound system.
Maybe 74 ish. By which time Morrison had already left us.
Probably would have been more appropriate blaring LA freeways?
What a trip that was!
Zionism is a social disease
Know you are a late nighter on the left coast
on my second shift of the night after a brief
interlude with the pillow. Always a bit strange.
Insomnia they call it.
Have absolutely no problem fixing supper at
2 AM local time. The rhythms are universal.
Tonight was sausage/ black beans and jasmine rice.
For your listening pleasure. Something mild.
Zionism is a social disease
Yes!
Great Music, and yes, I was still up, doing stuff. We make our dinner at around 8-9 pm now. I find that it's 'natural' to sleep in two shifts. I'm not an 8 hours all at once type of person. Different strokes for different folks!
Btw, thanks for the great music!
If you're poor now, my friend, then you'll stay poor.
These days, only the rich get given more. -- Martial book 5:81, c. AD 100 or so
Nothing ever changes -- Sima, c. AD 2020 or so