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RE: Ask A Historian
June 17, 2015 at 1:57 pm
(June 17, 2015 at 1:21 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Count of what?
Of your age!
Or are you making an Alzheimer's joke? 
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
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RE: Ask A Historian
June 17, 2015 at 2:48 pm
OK - I didn't get the segue.
Birthdays are irrelevant.
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RE: Ask A Historian
June 17, 2015 at 4:03 pm
Min's like wine, only gets better with age 
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RE: Ask A Historian
June 17, 2015 at 4:09 pm
(June 17, 2015 at 2:48 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Birthdays are irrelevant.
Hah! Now you sound like a Jehovah's Witness.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
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RE: Ask A Historian
June 17, 2015 at 4:25 pm
Once I hit retirement age they were of no more use to me.
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RE: Ask A Historian
June 18, 2015 at 6:40 am
Min, what do you know about the building of the colloseum?
Was it used for anything after the "good old days"?
Is that one of the wonders of the ancient world?
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Know God, Know fear.
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RE: Ask A Historian
June 18, 2015 at 7:21 am
(June 17, 2015 at 4:25 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Once I hit retirement age they were of no more use to me.
Huh. I had you in mind as being in your 40's at the latest for some reason...
I have a question, not exactly historical but related to it. Overall, do you think we are getting better at learning from history and learning from our mistakes?
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RE: Ask A Historian
June 18, 2015 at 10:17 am
(June 18, 2015 at 6:40 am)ignoramus Wrote: Min, what do you know about the building of the colloseum?
Was it used for anything after the "good old days"?
Is that one of the wonders of the ancient world?
My understanding from my ancient architecture classes was that the colloseum, by which I assume you mean the Flavian Amphitheater in Rome:
![[Image: great-flavian-amphitheater.jpg]](https://www.papermasters.com/images/great-flavian-amphitheater.jpg)
was sort of "poached" for building materials after the fall of the Roman empire. People would come to the amphitheater and steal the stone and ironwork to build other things - the current partially ruined state of the amphitheater is in part due simply to its age, in part due to the robbery of its materials, and mostly due to earthquakes that have caused portions of the structure to collapse.
I'm not sure whether or what uses the theaters were put to after "the good old days," but again my understanding was that they slowly lost funding as games died out and the theaters fell into disrepair (which then led to the robbery of building materials, etc.)
And no, the Flavian Amphitheater is NOT one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. I think only the pyramids of Giza remain from the seven wonders. The others would be the hanging gardens of Babylon, The Alexandrian lighthouse, the Collosus of Rhodes, the statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis, and the mausoleum at Halicarnassus.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
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RE: Ask A Historian
June 18, 2015 at 2:16 pm
(June 18, 2015 at 7:21 am)Iroscato Wrote: (June 17, 2015 at 4:25 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Once I hit retirement age they were of no more use to me.
Huh. I had you in mind as being in your 40's at the latest for some reason...
I have a question, not exactly historical but related to it. Overall, do you think we are getting better at learning from history and learning from our mistakes?
He is in his 60's. He seems at least that old to me, and I would not have been surprised if he were in his 70's (but he is only in his 60's). That, by the way, is not intended as an insult of any kind. He seems to have a good amount of experience with life, and has that crotchety old man vibe, from a life of hearing too much bullshit from idiots over the years, and has little patience left for nonsense. He has patience with reasonable questions, but not for idiotic bullshit.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
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RE: Ask A Historian
June 18, 2015 at 2:22 pm
(June 18, 2015 at 7:21 am)Iroscato Wrote: (June 17, 2015 at 4:25 pm)Minimalist Wrote: Once I hit retirement age they were of no more use to me.
Huh. I had you in mind as being in your 40's at the latest for some reason...
I have a question, not exactly historical but related to it. Overall, do you think we are getting better at learning from history and learning from our mistakes?
Clearly not.
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