gmane.education.classics

Re: TAN: Etymology + high tech neologism = skeumorphism

Colin McLarty — 2013-05-25T11:55:55

Certainly I am against using "the most awful and mawkish and flat-out tacky
visual cues."  But I like standardized visual clues a lot.  When I turn on
a computer in China and get a screen in Chinese it really helps that I know
immediately what half the icons mean.

Tom Chatfield at
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130509-apple-designs-break-from-the-past/2
says sensibly "Design can never go entirely without mimicry; not least
because, if you’re not speaking some kind of common visual language, you
cannot make yourself understood. Ive's greatest triumphs at Apple pay
explicit tribute to Rams's work at Braun in the 1960s – and it seems
unlikely that someone with such a deep sensitivity to its history will
abandon onscreen dialogue with the manufactured world."

But he is guessing.  And even to the extent that he is right, it is only
vaguely reassuring.  Apple apparently says nothing about how they'll
replace the mawkish images.

And I know what my computer science students would say.  They'd say
eliminate the visual in favor of voice commands.  It is way fun technology
and I don't doubt it will soon work well enough for most English speakers.
 Tamil speakers, to take one of many examples, mostly learn some English at
school already.  But I hope there will be an easy way to find
the language menu, and/or the regional accent menu, on each computer.

Colin



On Sat, May 25, 2013 at 6:30 AM, Ralph Hancock <ralph.hancock< at >gmail.com>wrote:

Re: TAN: Etymology + high tech neologism = skeumorphism

Ralph Hancock — 2013-05-25T10:30:06

It's not just Apple. Looking around my Windows computer, I find a
picture of a cardboard folder to indicate a directory, a sheet of
paper for a document, a floppy disk icon for saving things, a padlock
for locking the keyboard, a round cornered television screen to
symbolise the rectangular display, an AA battery to represent the
battery, a big old-fashioned loudspeaker for sound, a roof antenna for
wifi, a cogwheel for settings, a moon for sending the machine to
sleep, and a running man with a pack on his back for a function whose
purpose I have never discovered. These things may be obsolete, but
they are useful and well understood. Any symbols that replaced them
would not be.

RH

On 25 May 2013 03:41, Szegedy-Maszak, Andrew <aszegedymasz< at >wesleyan.edu> wrote:

TAN: Etymology + high tech neologism = skeumorphism

Szegedy-Maszak, Andrew — 2013-05-25T02:41:53

This was a new one for me – skeumorphism:   http://mashable.com/2012/11/03/skeumorphism/
It came up because apparently Apple is getting ready to abandon it as a design principle: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130509-apple-designs-break-from-the-past
Andy SzM

Andrew Szegedy-Maszak
Professor of Classical Studies
Jane A. Seney Professor of Greek
Wesleyan University
Middletown, CT  06459
ph: 860.685.2065
fax: 860.685.2089
________________________________________

Re: [MGSA-L] new website on the reception of ancient Greek tragedy in Modern Greek poetry and theatre

June Samaras — 2013-05-24T11:47:57

Follow us on Twitter< at >EumenidesProjec

Re: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus -- some help please

david meadows — 2013-05-23T17:31:01

I just checked the archives ... 21 years ago (!) I was asking about book 10
and none other than James O'Donnell recommended Barrow's Prefect and
Emperor ... (which is a commentary on book 10 if that's what you're
interested in)

... what a long, strange trip it's been ..

dm


On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 8:16 AM, Jim O'Donnell <cassiodorus< at >gmail.com>wrote:

Re: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus -- some help please

Sally Winchester — 2013-05-23T14:49:50

Thank you.  I have the first book but not the second.  I shall look for it.  

Sally
On May 23, 2013, at 8:16 AM, Jim O'Donnell wrote:

Re: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus -- some help please

Sally Winchester — 2013-05-23T14:48:23

Thank you.  This is just what I was looking for.  

Sally
On May 23, 2013, at 3:55 AM, Annette Pohlke wrote:

Re: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus -- some help please

Jim O'Donnell — 2013-05-23T12:16:01

Alan Cameron's Last Pagans will tell you his story, or more fully
Cristiana Sogno's biography of him.  His writing is a bit much if
you're not used to robust late antique Latin prose, but Michele
Salzman and Michael Roberts have recently published a translation of
the first book of his letters.  His relationes three and ten (edited
with translation, it comes back to me, by R.H. Barrow a generation
ago) are supposedly texts of pagan resistance to Christianity:  see
Cameron for the problems with that romantic interpretation.

Jim O'Donnell

On Thu, May 23, 2013 at 3:55 AM, Annette Pohlke <annette< at >pohlke.de> wrote:

Re: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus -- some help please

Annette Pohlke — 2013-05-23T07:55:23

Not in the PL, but in the MGH: 

http://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/~db/bsb00000794/images/index.html?fip=193.174.98.30&seite=5&pdfseitex=

As far as I know, this is complete. I wouldn't classify anything as "against Christians", but you are probably looking for material that concerns the altar of Victoria, and that would be  the relatio III.

Annette

Am 23.05.2013 um 04:57 schrieb david meadows:

Re: Homer and "European religion" (was Re: "Oh Father Where Art Thou": Tim Blake Nelson, Faulkner, Odyssey)

Goya — 2013-05-23T06:04:52

Dear Dan et al.,

Venner may have been a troubled man, but even more troubling was the
reaction from the French Right, who wasted no time in praising Venner's
act as that of a hero and martyr. Marine Le Pen, head of the Front
National and thus of one of the three major parties in French politics,
tweeted as follows: "Tout notre respect à Dominique Venner dont le dernier
geste, éminemment politique, aura été de tenter de réveiller le peuple de
France". Perhaps more relevantly to this thread, the head of the Jeunes
Frontistes, Julien Rochedy, tweeted: "C'est avec une immense tristesse que
j'apprends le suicide de Dominique Venner. Il va rejoindre les héros de
l'Iliade qu'il aimait tant."

As far as choice of venue is concerned, I suspect it had less to do with
religion than with a kind of Joan-of-Arc-idolizing worship of all things
Gallic. Think Templars, Merovingians, Marie Magdalene: all that Dan brown
stuff, quoi.

There have always been a lot of scary people among my esteemed neighbors.
There are now more than ever, and they are more powerful than any time I
can remember.

Best, Mike




Michael Chase
CNRS UPR 76
Paris-Villejuif
France

Re: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus -- some help please

lorenzo smerillo — 2013-05-23T03:40:35

Or check the Oxford Classical Dictionary s.u. Symmachus (2) Quintus Aurelius.
feliciter.


On 22 May 2013 22:57, david meadows <rogueclassicist< at >gmail.com> wrote:

Re: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus -- some help please

david meadows — 2013-05-23T02:57:47

most of them are in the patrologia thing i think ... i still cant remember where i was reading his letters when i asked my question

Sent from my iPad

On 2013-05-22, at 10:42 PM, Sally Winchester <bcuthill< at >US.NET> wrote:

Re: Quintus Aurelius Symmachus -- some help please

david meadows — 2013-05-23T02:51:24

wow ... go back to the original archives (via awol) and look for my very first post .l. memories ...

Sent from my iPad

On 2013-05-22, at 10:42 PM, Sally Winchester <bcuthill< at >US.NET> wrote:

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus -- some help please

Sally Winchester — 2013-05-23T02:42:27

Greetings,

I've just found out about a very interesting late, Pagan Roman -Quintus Aurelius Symmachus -- and am trying to find texts of his works.  There doesn't seem to be much online or in print and no complete corpus.  Can anyone please help me find his complete works not just excerpts.  I'm especially looking for all the works against the xians.

Maximas gratias,
Sally

Re: What Our Words Tell Us [TAN]

Ralph Hancock — 2013-05-23T00:06:24

Leaving aside the sad story that this survey tells us about a society
in decline and concentration on just one word, it's not surprising
that 'cocaine' was such a prevalent word in Victorian times. From the
time of the first practical extraction process in the 1860s, it was
touted as a wonderful stimulant and powerful pain reliever, and as an
invaluable aid to concentration. I think that Dr Watson's disapproval
of Sherlock Holmes's cocaine habit would have been seen as prudish by
society at large. Remember also that the earliest version of Coca-Cola
contained coca extract (not refined cocaine, which would have been too
expensive), and that it was marketed as an 'Esteemed Brain Tonic'.

Searching Google Images for 'cocaine advertisement' gives an idea of
how widely and in what varied forms the stuff was marketed.

RH

Re: Homer and "European religion" (was Re: "Oh Father Where Art Thou": Tim Blake Nelson, Faulkner, Odyssey)

Ralph Hancock — 2013-05-22T23:51:13

If you have a vague idea of the history of western literature, you
probably know that it started with Homer, and you will recall
paintings showing heroic but largely incomprehensible actions, and
laudatory references in literature; and you will jump to the hasty
conclusion that Homer is the epitome of archaic nobility, rectitude
and what have you. It's only when you actually read Homer, and find
that it's about very human things like quarrels over women, bloody
battles and confused journeys, that this lofty, misty image comes down
to earth with a bump.

RH

Homer and "European religion" (was Re: "Oh Father Where Art Thou": Tim Blake Nelson, Faulkner, Odyssey)

DANIEL P. TOMPKINS — 2013-05-22T22:12:26

To: Classics lists, and a few friends interested in receptions,  BCC --

Here's a bit more, on the invocation of "Homer" in construction of a
"religion of Europe" by a  right-wing Frenchman who committed suicide --
only one in a millennium it seems -- in Notre Dame on Monday:

The press reports about M. Venner's sad
suicide<http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2013/05/21/un-homme-se-suicide-dans-la-cathedrale-notre-dame_3414854_3224.html>
"in
front of the altar at Notre Dame"  seem never to use the phrase *péché
mortel*, "mortal sin."   This seems very odd, but friends tell me that
Venner was also very anti-Catholic.

So why Notre Dame?  The man was upset about homosexuality, but from a
religious point of view desecrated a church.  Can it be that *Notre Dame
figures in all this as a civic, not a religious, monument*, chosen for its
central position in Paris, with  theology taking a back seat to the civic
nature of his protest?

His suicide note<http://www.agoravox.fr/tribune-libre/article/le-sacrifice-de-dominique-venner-136185>
seems
to point in this direction:

*Je choisis un lieu hautement symbolique, la cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris
que je respecte et admire, elle qui fut édifiée par le génie de mes aïeux
sur des lieux de cultes plus anciens, rappelant nos origines immémoriales.*

*...*

*Le discours dominant ne pouvant sortir de ses ambiguïtés toxiques, il
appartient aux Européens d’en tirer les conséquences. À défaut de posséder
une religion identitaire à laquelle nous amarrer, nous avons en partage
depuis Homère une mémoire propre, dépôt de toutes les valeurs sur
lesquelles refonder notre future renaissance en rupture avec la
métaphysique de l’illimité, source néfaste de toutes les dérives modernes.*
Very little there about "religion," but a lot about the shared European
heritage going back to Homer (but selectively, if same-sex liaisons were
really so troubling to him).

Sounds like a troubled man.  With a following.


Best,

Dan Tompkins


On Wed, May 22, 2013 at 5:11 AM, DANIEL P. TOMPKINS <pericles< at >temple.edu>wrote:

What Our Words Tell Us [TAN]

June Samaras — 2013-05-22T21:55:40

OP-ED COLUMNIST
What Our Words Tell Us
By DAVID BROOKS
Published: May 20, 2013 428 Comments

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/opinion/brooks-what-our-words-tell-us.html?src=me&ref=general

About two years ago, the folks at Google released a database of 5.2
million books published between 1500 and 2008. You can type a search
word into the database and find out how frequently different words
were used at different epochs.

The database doesn’t tell you how the words were used; it just tells
you how frequently they were used. Still, results can reveal
interesting cultural shifts. For example, somebody typed the word
“cocaine” into the search engine and found that the word was
surprisingly common in the Victorian era. Then it gradually declined
during the 20th century until around 1970, when usage skyrocketed.

I’d like to tell a story about the last half-century, based on studies
done with this search engine. The first element in this story is
rising individualism. A study by Jean M. Twenge, W. Keith Campbell and
Brittany Gentile found that between 1960 and 2008 individualistic
words and phrases increasingly overshadowed communal words and
phrases.

That is to say, over those 48 years, words and phrases like
“personalized,” “self,” “standout,” “unique,” “I come first” and “I
can do it myself” were used more frequently. Communal words and
phrases like “community,” “collective,” “tribe,” “share,” “united,”
“band together” and “common good” receded.

The second element of the story is demoralization. A study by Pelin
Kesebir and Selin Kesebir found that general moral terms like
“virtue,” “decency” and “conscience” were used less frequently over
the course of the 20th century. Words associated with moral
excellence, like “honesty,” “patience” and “compassion” were used much
less frequently.

The Kesebirs identified 50 words associated with moral virtue and
found that 74 percent were used less frequently as the century
progressed. Certain types of virtues were especially hard hit. Usage
of courage words like “bravery” and “fortitude” fell by 66 percent.
Usage of gratitude words like “thankfulness” and “appreciation”
dropped by 49 percent.

Usage of humility words like “modesty” and “humbleness” dropped by 52
percent. Usage of compassion words like “kindness” and “helpfulness”
dropped by 56 percent. Meanwhile, usage of words associated with the
ability to deliver, like “discipline” and “dependability” rose over
the century, as did the usage of words associated with fairness. The
Kesebirs point out that these sorts of virtues are most relevant to
economic production and exchange.

Daniel Klein of George Mason University has conducted one of the
broadest studies with the Google search engine. He found further
evidence of the two elements I’ve mentioned. On the subject of
individualization, he found that the word “preferences” was barely
used until about 1930, but usage has surged since. On the general
subject of demoralization, he finds a long decline of usage in terms
like “faith,” “wisdom,” “ought,” “evil” and “prudence,” and a sharp
rise in what you might call social science terms like “subjectivity,”
“normative,” “psychology” and “information.”

Klein adds the third element to our story, which he calls
“governmentalization.” Words having to do with experts have shown a
steady rise. So have phrases like “run the country,” “economic
justice,” “nationalism,” “priorities,” “right-wing” and “left-wing.”
The implication is that politics and government have become more
prevalent.

So the story I’d like to tell is this: Over the past half-century,
society has become more individualistic. As it has become more
individualistic, it has also become less morally aware, because social
and moral fabrics are inextricably linked. The atomization and
demoralization of society have led to certain forms of social
breakdown, which government has tried to address, sometimes
successfully and often impotently.

This story, if true, should cause discomfort on right and left.
Conservatives sometimes argue that if we could just reduce government
to the size it was back in, say, the 1950s, then America would be
vibrant and free again. But the underlying sociology and moral culture
is just not there anymore. Government could be smaller when the social
fabric was more tightly knit, but small government will have different
and more cataclysmic effects today when it is not.

Liberals sometimes argue that our main problems come from the top: a
self-dealing elite, the oligarchic bankers. But the evidence suggests
that individualism and demoralization are pervasive up and down
society, and may be even more pervasive at the bottom. Liberals also
sometimes talk as if our problems are fundamentally economic, and can
be addressed politically, through redistribution. But maybe the root
of the problem is also cultural. The social and moral trends swamp the
proposed redistributive remedies.

Evidence from crude data sets like these are prone to confirmation
bias. People see patterns they already believe in. Maybe I’ve done
that here. But these gradual shifts in language reflect tectonic
shifts in culture. We write less about community bonds and obligations
because they’re less central to our lives.

A version of this op-ed appeared in print on May 21, 2013, on page A25 of the

Archeologists believe Roman gate found in Beirut

June Samaras — 2013-05-22T19:43:08

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2013/May-15/217122-archeologists-believe-roman-gate-found-in-beirut.ashx?goback=%2Egde_690807_member_242547652#axzz2ToFv2zkN

Archeologists believe Roman gate found in Beirut
May 15, 2013 01:29 AM
By Van Meguerditchian
The Daily Star


BEIRUT: Archaeologists said this week that after working for seven
years on Downtown’s Riad al-Solh Square they have reason to believe
that ruins there include the remnants of a gate that served as a main
entrance to the ancient Roman city that once occupied modern Beirut.

Archaeologists said that if a link between the Roman gate of the
ancient city, dating back to the 1st century A.D., and the ruins can
be confirmed, it would constitute one of the most significant
archaeological findings in Lebanon.

“The remnants uncovered on the site, among others, have various
characteristics that we believe are part of the southern Roman gate of
the ancient city of Beirut,” one archaeologist with knowledge about
the excavations said on condition of anonymity, as he wasn’t
authorized to speak about the findings yet.

Findings from archaeological digs on the site of the $149 million
project in Riad al-Solh Square are not supposed to be disclosed,
according to regulations from the Culture Ministry’s Directorate
General of Antiquities’ orders.

Similar to other excavation sites in Downtown Beirut, this one in
particular brought a halt to the Landmark Project, a multipurpose
development initiative announced in 2005 and designed by renowned
French architect Jean Nouvel.

While media outlets and photographers are not allowed to enter such
sites due to the DGA’s policies, The Daily Star managed to take a
photo of the alleged Roman gate of Beirut.

Culture Minister Gaby Layyoun and DGA Director Asaad Seif paid an
unanticipated visit to the site along with a group of archaeologists
over the weekend. According to participants at the meeting, discussion
focused mainly on the importance of the archaeological findings and
the future measures the DGA should undertake for the site.

“Although Directorate General of Antiquities’ President Asaad Seif
said it was necessary to continue digging on the location where the
Roman gate was found, Layyoun disagreed and said the Landmark Project
must be revived,” the archaeologist said.

But the archaeologist said that more work needed to be done to unearth
what is left of the ruins and to understand their historical
importance.

The archaeologist also argued that an arch-shaped wall is very similar
to ancient Roman gates that were built between 100 B.C. and 200 A.D.
“Our findings could be very similar to Palmyrene Gate Dura-Europos in
eastern Syria,” the archaeologist said.

Originally built in the Hellenistic era 2,300 years ago, Dura-Europos
functioned as a Roman border city near the Euphrates River, known as
the village of Salhiye in modern day Syria.

Meanwhile, the destruction of other archaeological findings in
Downtown Beirut continued this week after the Culture Ministry
approved a demolition order for a number of other ancient sites just
blocks away from Riad al-Solh Square.

A bulldozer razed through part of an archaeological site Tuesday
afternoon. Officials on site said the order came after the culture
minister approved another project, called District S, which requires
the sites of some ruins to be overhauled and reconstructed.

“The minister approved the continuation of the [District S] project’s
work today and the [area of the] ruins will be included the project,”
said Ziad, an official supervising the excavation work.

When The Daily Star reporters attempted to check on the site, they
were forcibly pushed out by DGA employees.

“Get away before I break the camera, I am on strict orders from the
ministry not to let anyone in here,” one man said as he closed the
site’s gate, behind which a bulldozer continued its work.


A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily
Star on May 15, 2013, on page 4.


Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2013/May-15/217122-archeologists-believe-roman-gate-found-in-beirut.ashx?goback=%2Egde_690807_member_242547652#ixzz2U33szm3D
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
--
June Samaras
KALAMOS BOOKS
(For Books about Greece)
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : kalamosbooks< at >gmail.com
www.kalamosbooks.com
http://kalamosb.alibrisstore.com/
http://www.antiqbook.com/books/bookseller.phtml/kal

eBOOKS: 3, From the Norwegian Institute at Athens

sbudin — 2013-05-22T12:40:37

    Enjoy!  -Stephanie Budin


Go to <https://digitalt.uib.no/handle/1956.2/2921> to download the
following books:
========================================

Title: Two battles and two bills : Marathon and the Athenian fleet
Author: Schreiner, Johan Henrik Date: 2004

Title: Petition and response : an epigraphic study of petitions to
Roman Emperors 181-249 Author: Hauken, Tor Date: 1998

Title: Mycenaean Cult Buildings: a Study of their Architecture and
Function in the Context of the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean
Author: Whittaker, Helene Date: 1997

"Oh Father Where Art Thou": Tim Blake Nelson, Faulkner, Odyssey

DANIEL P. TOMPKINS — 2013-05-22T09:11:50

I had not 'til today known that the title of Faulkner's *As I Lay Dying* comes
from *Odyssey* 11.424 ff.  That and other useless items come from the NYT
piece<http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/cannes-film-festival-james-franco-on-adapting-novels-and-multitasking/?hpw>on
James Franco and the new film of the Faulkner book, along with the
news
that Anse Burden, patriarch of his family and "one of Faulkner's most
despicable creations," is played by Tim Blake Nelson.  It's hard to imagine
George Clooney's goofy mate in such a role, but such is the wonderful world
of action.  Maybe Ne

I'm no fan of movies made from books, but this sounds like a possibly
interesting one.    Completing the Tim Blake Norton classics hat trick, a
dark comedy he directed  called *Leaves of Grass *(never heard of it)*.  *
Wiki <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaves_of_Grass_(film)>:

The film opens with Bill Kincaid (Edward
Norton<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Norton>)
lecturing his Latin class at Brown University about Socrates’ dialogues,
and discussing Greek tragedies (fatherless twins, death, murder). He
dismisses the class and then meets up with his student, Anne (Lucy
DeVito<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_DeVito>).
Anne attempts to have sex with Bill, which he refuses. A coworker enters
the room, and talks to Bill about an upcoming meeting he is having with
Harvard associates....

IMDB says Norton plays a "philosophy professor."

Dan Tompkins