The Beginning of a New Chapter

Whitewashed, dismantled, disfigured, H1006 has regressed to its primitive, sterile, initial state. But infused within two particularly colorful hidden squares, all of the memories persist (picture to come). 

VIVE LA MANSUITE

Yes we know!

Here's the plan for SEAS class day tomorrow morning.

Order of Events
-Procession
-Welcome Remarks
-Salutatory Remarks
-President Bollinger’s Remarks
-Presentation of the Class Gift by Senior Fund
-Dean Navratil’s Remarks and Presentation of Faculty Awards
-Alumni Remarks and Presentation of Faculty Teaching Awards
-Presentation of Student Awards and Prizes
-Valedictory Remarks
-Keynote Speaker Remarks
-Class President’s Remarks
-Reading of the Names and Presentation of Class Pins (Give your name card to the Advising Dean stationed to the right of the stage. You will then process across the stage to be congratulated by the Dean and the President, and to receive your class pin. Please return to your seat for the remainder of the ceremony.)
-Singing of Stand Colombia and Roar, Lion, Roar
-Recession

Men of letters

We will soon be them, so we'd better start acting like them.

Study break, extreme edition

A couple of us felt like we had been studying for too long on Friday, so we decided to take a little study break. No, this wasn't cupcakes on the Lerner ramp or an a capella concert; we had something a little more exciting in store for our weekend.

Saturday, 7:45am: Load skis in car, depart Lyme, NH



8:50am: Stop for Andrew to pee.

10:55am: Arrive Pekham's notch, Mt. Washington, NH 103 miles later.

11:15am: Gear up for the trail.



1:20pm: Arrive at base of Tuckerman's ravine, 2 miles and 1700 feet later.



1:34pm: While booting up at rocks at base run, watch a bloodied man with a broken nose tumble 800 feet to our location.

1:35pm: Scream for medic.

1:36pm: Have doubts about whether this is a good idea.

1:45pm: Begin ascent

1:49pm: Andrew: "Is this going to be one those times I regret following you, MC?"



2:35pm: Arrive at top of ravine, 1200 feet later, witness house-sized chuck of ice crack off on opposite wall and crash down to the Lunch Rocks.



2:39pm: Look down near-vertical cornice at top of headwall. Feel like vomiting and defecating simultaneously.

2:41pm: Telemarker suiting up at the top: "You climb up here over those icy rocks, you see avalanches and ice crash down over out there, you look down at this huge expanse of mountain and get the sensation of it all being really epic. Don't let the mountain get to you, at the end of the day-- it's just fucking skiing."

2:44pm: Jump off first. Enter couloir.

2:45:36pm: Exit couloir.

2:46pm: Reaffirm value of living. Relegate stresses of life within larger perspective of the everlasting universe of the sublimity of infinite nature.

2:47pm: Decide to do it again.

2:48pm: Watch Andrew charge down.



2:52pm: Watch George lose an edge entering the hourglass. Watch George slide towards rocky precipice. Watch George get caught by mercy of the bushes on the outcropping.

2:53pm: Hike up to retrieve his equipment.

3:01pm: Make George film me skiing out partway out of couloir into bowl.

3:02pm: See sky. See snow. See sky. See snow. See sky. See snow. See snow. Evaluate body diagnostics.



3:04pm: Recover only to see George lose balance and fall right at me. Jump out of way at last second.

[3:04pm at ravine floor as related by Andrew: Become the laughing stock of the lunch crowd at our Marx brothers routine.]

3:10pm: Hike up and make George film attempt two.



4:15pm: Hike out to car with everybody relatively intact.

5:15pm: Arrive at parking lot right as torrential downpour begins.

5:25pm: Pull off road to permit rain to pass.

7:42pm: Stop at Wal-Mart to let George get flowers for mother's day.

8:15pm: Arrive at driveway, nearly drive over downed live power lines across driveway. Save everybody's life by shouting.

8:17pm Pick way around downed power lines, encounter 5 blown-down trees on driveway and destruction at the house. George becomes severely frustrated.



9:10pm: Begin chainsawing trees.

10:45pm: Finish chainsawing and hauling. Get beer and enter hot tub. Sweet, merciful hot tub.

Needless to say, we didn't get back until Sunday. 1200 miles of driving, 6 miles of hiking and 7000 feet elevation change, all for 1 minute and 30 seconds of bliss. Can we consider it a "ski day"?

Prioritizing

Nothing like a monsoon-scale rainstorm to help you prioritize your studying.



And nothing like an extra couple of warm bodies to make the shower better:

Colin is king!

On Quigly's throne.

And I declare myself king of this blog because nobody posts anymore.

Relevant to my Interests

Thank you google adsense, for your deft insights into my consumer purchasing habits:


Contrary to popular belief, you can actually click on photos to make them larger

The Roman Forum! A Chance to Learn

Today, we are talking about the ancient Roman Forum, the core of the thriving republican and imperial city that once stood at the center of the entire universe. Some, of course, may argue that it still does, but the city we will be talking about today--that of 2000 years ago--certainly did.

Today's lecture will focus on the Roman Forum! The Roman Forum, nestled in between three of the seven original hills of Rome--the Capitoline, Palatine, and Esquline--was the center for all public matters. It contained architectural and public spaces that supported political, religious, economic, judicial, and honorary social functions. As such, the forum grew to be an incredibly diverse space characterized by an equally diverse set of new architectural inventions. The ruins we can see now mark the physical footprint left by the values and principles of an incredibly complex ancient world, one that marked the beginnings of much of the western values and systems we know today. The forum, even in its crumbled state, challenges us to imagine how so many of our contemporary social practices were in fact built into a world that thrived so long ago.

Plan of the Forum. The Black dots represent columns.

So, what did this place look like? Good question. The earliest developments of the forum occurred around VI-V BC, when the first urbanization came to the cradle in between the three hills. During this early stage Via Saccra, the road that slices through the forum to this day, was planned and mapped. The Palatine Hill to the south, which is now marked primarily by the ruins of a much later Imperial palace, was populated by Etruscan style homes during this early stage of civic development. The presence of residential architecture at this early stage marks the primitive level of Roman development at this time; the population was small and centralized, with the earliest inhabitants living on the land that would later become solely public and imperial space.

This cornice once stood 75 feet in the air--maybe even higher, but it still had to be perfect.

Things start to get really interesting in the forum during the republican revolution. Political functions are decentralized, ushering in the separation of the senate, the rostra, and comitium, and the basilica. Now, what were these things? Great question. The senate was, of course, the meeting place for magistrates. It took the form of the curia, the senate building located at the northwest corner of the Via Saccra. Then we have the rostra, the stage like platform where orators would address the public. Originally it was attached to the curia, but it was moved to the center of forum in years later. Finally, we have the basilica, which served a diverse set of functions. The basilicas worked as a meeting place where financial transactions, market shops/expos, and judicial trails could be held. There are two main basilicas in the forum: the basilica Amelia and the basilica Iulia. They differ in that the the Basilica Julia is much larger, with a central nave and two side isles on each side. You can see the scale difference in the plans:

The larger Basilica Iulia on the bottom, with a center nave area and two side aisles. A nice place to hang out.

The Forum was also populated with a number of temples and honorary columns. The honorary column was kind of a funny thing. It was basically a pedestal that held a singular column on top of which you would find a statue of the man being honored. More often than not these fellows were the ones rich enough to commission sculptors to make the honorary columns, not necessarily ones deserving honor.

Ruins from the Temple of Saturn. Nice.

Tabularium, the judicial building that set the architectural precedent for the Colosseum and many of the theatres of ancient Rome.

Arch of Constantine

That's all for now. I hope you enjoyed the Roman Forum. Go to Rome!