7.03.2026

250 years ending with a circus

Starting with kings in Rome and ending with emperors in Constantinople, the Roman state lasted about 2,000 years. It reached its peak power under the the late republic and the first Caesars. Did they celebrate its 250th anniversary? Or its 1,000th? 
I was listening to the conversation Lex Fridman had with Anthony Kaldellis—the state survived through changes of capitals, languages, and religions. What seems to have been constant was the legal system. Emperors were appointed, inherited the crown from their fathers, or seized power by military force, but ordinary citizens could still expect the justice system to function.
According to Kardellis the emperor were drawing their legitimacy thru competence.
Was pane et circenses or justice?
Turns out Rome celebrated its 1,000 anniversary. Usual circus.
According to Wiki the Ludi saeculares emperor was Philip the Arab who might have been the first Christian emperor. He also made peace with Persia. the expenses of the cellebration led to his fall.


6.28.2026

Syco

 From Sycophancy - What i hate most is false praise. Like Gemini finding me funny. Like Grok finding me funny. Like all others bots genuflecting. Obsequiousness.

What i learned from a WSJ article is that the bots imitate you way of talking, your conversation style. Howl do they do this with my bad and unorthographical English? Luckily they do not hear my accent on top of my sentence structure...they generally come from an use meaning follower. turns out sycophant comes from Greek where it meant showing the fig. the is made by putting the thumb between two fingers or into the mouth, with the intended effect of the modern gesture of "flipping the bird"

6.27.2026

Robert Escarpit

 After I wrote the previous post I decided to look for his bio. Quite amazing - he was an editor of the Canard Enchaine - my favorite publication. I also wanted to be capable  to write using cultural references and calembours. [ I spent several hours in a car with a French young lady. I told her that in my youth I dreamt to write for a  French paper and asked her to guess which. - she immediately said Le Canard Enchaine] So Escarpit was a communist, he wrote on humor and on communication.