Archive for September, 2002

Rome = Washington

Wednesday, September 18th, 2002

This is a very interesting article in the Guardian today. Jonathan Freedland writes an excellent piece on the ins and outs of whether the US empire today could be compared to the Roman Empire c300BC – 150AD.

Strangely enough, this argument is one that the irreverant Anthony Sheridan and I have discussed with the other Roman scholar, Tony. We had come to all the same conclusions drawn by Freedland, as well as the fact that like all Empires, the US will fall at some point in the future. But that unlike the collapse of the Roman empire, the fall of the US empire could be far more catastrophic given its huge number of nuclear weapons. The documentary starts Saturday.

Right-wing mania

Wednesday, September 18th, 2002

A very interesting read, if somewhat disturbing. I can only agree with the journalist in question on his closing remarks, “The only people more dangerous than dumb bigots are smart, educated ones”.

Fukuyama under attack: Amitav Acharya

Tuesday, September 17th, 2002

Amitav Acharya writes an interesting piece in today’s Tribune. This subject is one that interests me greatly, as can be seen be seen from previous postings about Fukuyama. The book mentioned in Acharya’s article, the Clash of Civilizations by Sam Huntington, I actually bought for my uncle last Christmas, but have recently borrowed from him for my own reading. I am currently half way through it so I cannot really comment on the book as a whole.

As for the Acharya article, I do largely agree with his sentiments. His criticism of Fukuyama is well placed and well thought out. The book mentioned at the end of the article also sound interesting, one I will have to look at in the future.

Motorola leaks plans for mobiles

Tuesday, September 17th, 2002

Motorola managed to somehow leak information about phones (this link will likely not last long) they plan to release next year. Most of them do look very nice, and I had not expected phones with 802.11b/GSM/GPRS/3G phone to be coming out quiet as soon as 2003 The Reg are right though, those V70i phones do look horrible. .

Cheetah

Thursday, September 12th, 2002

A cheetah in Fota Wildlife Park, Cork.