So, it looks like I am finally heading toward the stretch in my life when I will have an opportunity to make progress on my thesis.

As a good architect (*chuckle*), I am thinking of a protocol stack of sorts, and here are some of the layers that I have identified and wish to sort out.

• The layer of argumentation, which breaks down into two ( Read more... )

Recently, my friend InferenceArchitect brought to my attention the analysis of STRATFOR that argues that none of the clerics in Iran are interested in getting to a democratic Iran, but that it is a power hustle where each side is willing (or not) to accept the democratic aspirations of the Iranian middle class as a token of support. Fundamentally, ( Read more... )

For most of the stuff that I work with in my historiographical research, a Davidsonian style of knowledge representation is really most appropriate. The backbone of historiography is after all the chronology, so an event centric representation makes all sorts of sense ( Read more... )

While it is not completely clear how this came about, it is clear that my recent visit to the Asian Art Museum in Seattle is not free of guilt in this matter. At any rate, the question of Chinese state formation, especially on the transition from the Neolithic to the early state hood, has become of enormous interest to me again ( Read more... )

Apparently, my source translation project was not a novel idea; and these guys have more sources and they are way better in Latin too.

Yup, should have Googled indominicatum earlier .... Sigh.

Need to regroup and rethink.

As part and parcel of my studies in Feudal (mostly French) economy, I have been looking at the so-called polyptique, a kind of inventory of Feudal goods and services drafted for fiscal purposes, of the Abbey of Montier-en-Der in Haute-Marne, France. An abbé and professor of Ancient History, Charles Lalore, published the Latin document with a French ( Read more... )

I was talking to my friend mijopo about antiquarianism today, a historiographical stance that Italian historian Momigliano usefully distinguished from modern historical research.

I intended to link to Wikipedia, except I found myself redirected from Antiquarianism to Antiquarian, which is as absurd as Nationalism redirecting to patriotThe article on ( Read more... )

I cannot believe that the Jon Stewart crew, usually quite good in their research, used a segment from the Tapestry of Bayeux, which depicts the Norman invasion of Anglo-Saxon England, as a basis for a fake depiction of a "Plumber's Crusade" (occasioned by the shocking news that Joe the Plumber is now a war correspondent in the Gaza strip ( Read more... )

So about the Tutankhamun exhibit: The short of it is that the artefacts were astounding and the lack of museum pedagogics dumbfounding ( Read more... )

During the annual San Antonio Mission Trail run that the family has to accompany me on, I was able to rectify several misconceptions on my part and get a better understanding of some of the underlying settlement dynamics ( Read more... )