Monthly Archives: June 2010

The New AOL

Posted on by
Reply

I remember my first internet experience. I was just starting at Southern Miss and my new roommate, Keith, had a computer. He offered to put it in the living room so everyone in the house could use it for work. My brother and I happened to have an AOL disk, so we installed it and went online.

The first thing we did was go into a chatroom. Maybe now it seems silly, but the second thing we did online was get a Prodigy disk, install it, go online and into a beginner’s chatroom and ask, “What does “lol” mean?” With the answer in hand, we went back to AOL and went on to down hundreds of dollars over the next several months. As my brother and another roommate spent a lot of time looking at porn, eventually Keith moved the computer into his bedroom.

By then it wasn’t hard to get the money from my parents to buy my own PC.

Just thinking about those heady days makes me misty-eyed. Now we all know AOL was a walled garden, but in the beginning, we had no idea. We thought that’s what the internet was. Eventually we found out that if you used Internet Explorer or Netscape outside of AOL, when your connection broke (as regularly happened), you wouldn’t lose your webpage.

What was it that made AOL so successful in those early days? Was it the community? Not for me. I have one friend from online who I still talk to from those days. Was it the games? No, I hated Slingo from the first game of it I played.

I think it was just ignorance that kept everyone paying for so long. My first attempt to use another ISP was the first time I ever heard the term Winsock. It drove me back to AOL where I waited until Netdoor came along. Even after that, when someone asked how the internet worked, it was pretty easy to grab one of the thousands of discs AOL was distributing and send them on their way.

Everything ends, though.

Of course in my mind our modern equivalent of AOL is Facebook. It has chat, it has games, it has instant messaging. All the banality of AOL without the hourly (then monthly) access fee.

There are some differences, though. AOL supplied you with news and information. With Facebook, your friends supply you with news and information. While AOL used the Associated Press, your friends might not be the greatest or most reliable sources of news.

Farmville is as ubiquitous as it is terrible. I know one person who plays it, but at least she is aware it’s just a time filler. It really is a Slingo for the modern age. And just like Slingo, it’s aging housewives who keep it going. Worse than AOL, though, are the forced updates you get via Facebook about people’s progress…that is until you learn how to hide them.

Facebook has groups just like classic AOL did. It helps you keep up with your friends, family and coworkers, just like AOL did. It also has the ability to completely soak up hours of your time just like AOL did.

The biggest thing it did just like AOL, though, is it wore out its welcome. Where a year ago, I was a regular user, now I hardly log in. The thing is, again, just like AOL, when your great aunt Lillian has a Facebook account, just how cool can it really be? Let’s not forget that Aunt Lillian just got online with her new DSL, so you will be educating her about the ‘net one painful message at a time.

It will be interesting to see if Facebook can hold all its users or if they eventually all migrate away. People are pretty fickle. Already Myspace is down for the count having been completely steamrolled by Facebook. What about Brightkite and Virb? Will they turn Facebook into the new new AOL?

Only time and user interest will tell.


Submerged Ruins on Ukraine’s Black Sea Coast

Posted on by
Reply

When people think Ancient Greece’s influence, people normally think of temples with amazing colonnades or ruins overlooking the Mediterranean. Eastern Europe is host to several classically influenced sites, though. One of those sites, Olvia, has a unique history that makes it an important stop on anyone’s exploration of Eastern Europe’s Hellenistic settlements.

Founding a Milesian Colony
Miletus was the greatest of the eastern Greek cities prior to 500 B.C, but because of ongoing hostilities in the area now known as Turkish Anatolia, the city produced a large amount of emigrants. They set out on ships across the Black Sea founding dozens of colonies. The Encyclopeadia Britannica notes that there were 60 sites founded by the Miletians.
Founded in the 7th century, Olvia quickly became the center of trade for the region. It was separated into two areas, the lower city with the harbor and tradesman areas, and the upper city, about 40 meters above sea level, featuring residences, temples and the agora, or meeting area. The city was fortified with protective wall and defense towers. In total, the site covers 50 hectares.
Grains, timber, metals, fish and slaves flowed from the port to Greece. Greece reciprocated by sending their wines and other products to the local Scythian population of modern Ukraine and Russia. This was the first historical instance of Ukraine being Europe’s bread basket as it’s said that nearly all the cereals eaten in Greece originated there and passed through Olvia’s harbor.
As the city grew in wealth, it became more famous. Herodotus tells us of their minting of things unique in their time: coins in the shape of Black Sea dolphins in mid jump. Today we believe these coins were inspired by the tokens used at the Temple of Apollo.
The walls of the city were covered with paintings and inscriptions of Orphic tradition. Orphics believed their religion to have been founded by the mythological Orpheus and worshipped the god Dionysus. The modern scholar Martin Litchfield West believes that Orphism was influenced heavily by shamanistic practices of the Central Asian peoples. The large amount of Orphic graffiti at Olvia, he believes, shows religion to be another item imported and exported at Olvia.
In the 4th century B.C. with Miletus, Olvia tried to halt the advance of Alexander the Great’s army but failed after being besieged by Zopyrion. A period of decline followed. The 3rd century B.C. saw a shift in the powers of the local nomadic tribes as the Sarmatians began to encroach. Their relentless attacks led the Olvians to seek protection from the Scythian kings. Ultimately, the decline of Olvia was unstoppable. The last time of major habitation was around 130 B.C. likely due to the Scythian king Skiluros’ expansion policies. Around 60 B.C. a Thracian tribe known as the Getae conquered the city.
It is known that the Romans resettled the site and it was visited by the Greek philosopher Dio Chrysostom in A.D. 95 and described in his book Borysthenic Discourse. By this time, the level of the Black Sea had risen and claimed the lower city which was never rebuilt. After this time, a lacuna (or gap of knowledge) exists about the site. It is believed the site was abandoned in the 4th century A.D.

Modern Excavation of the Site
Olvia has proven to be a veritable treasure chest of historic finds. Excavations were begun in 1790. Later in 1839, the Imperial Odessa Society of History and Antiquity took over archeological work. Perhaps the father of Olvian excavation, though, was Boris Farmakovsky who meticulously worked there every season from 1902 to 1914 and resumed after wars and revolution from 1924 to 1926. A heavy emphasis remains today to complete work at the site as each year the water level of the Black Sea rises and more of Olvia is lost.


Chersonesos, the Center of Greece’s Crimean Colonies

Posted on by
Reply

On a bright clear day, you are walk along city walls built in the fourth century B.C. You turn and face an archway reconstructed during medieval times. Passing through it, you are in an agora, or ancient marketplace. The outlines of buildings lost to time are all around you. The smell of wild flowers reaches your nostrils. You hear seagulls call out at sea and see ships heading for the harbor. The ruins of a settlement dating back to the sixth century B.C. surround you. Down a hill you see Corinthian columns denoting an ancient place of worship. But you aren’t near the Mediterranean—you’re near Sevastopol, Crimea, Ukraine in what was once the heart of the Greek Crimean colonies: Chersonesos.

Diverse History of Occupation
Greek colonists from the southern Black Sea established settlements all along its northern coast in the sixth century B.C. Chersonesos was among the grandest, and its centralized location quickly made it a trade center. Constant raids by the rival Tauri from neighboring Symbolon (now Balaklava) during the Greek-Scythian Wars drove the colony into the protective arms of Mithradates the Great of Pontus (now Turkish Anatolia). At the onset of the first century A.D., Chersonesos was part of the Roman Empire and helped them maintain dominance in the Black Sea. Prosperity lasted through the Byzantine era until the Genoese established control of the Black Sea in the thirteenth century. Chersonesos fell out of favor with the Italian merchants as they adjusted their trade routes to alternative ports. Without external support the inhabitants of Chersonesos suffered punishing attacks from the Golden Horde, invaders from what is now modern Mongolia under the infamous Genghis Khan. By the fifteenth century, the city had been abandoned as the Crimean Khanate state rose to power.

A Walking Tour of the Site
Passing through the city gates, you walk along a tree-lined street. At the end of the street, history opens up before you in the form of the reconstructed Vladimir Cathedral. Monuments to St. Andrew, who is said to have preached here, and Prince Vladimir, credited with the Kievan Rus conversion to Christianity stand nearby. Originally constructed in the Byzantine style in the late 1800s, the church was abandoned by the Soviets and later destroyed by Nazis during World War II. Inside there is a photo display detailing the church’s reconstruction begun in the early years of Ukrainian independence and officially completed in 2004.
Looking down the hill behind the cathedral, you will see the rotunda of the Uvarov Basilica. While the rotunda is new, the underground church dates back to the site’s earliest Christian inhabitants in the sixth century and is perhaps the most historically significant site in the preserve. It was discovered in 1853 and named for its discoverer, Count Aleksei Uvarov. Historians believe it to be the site of Prince Vladimir’s baptism into Christianity in 988, the event that marked the beginnings of the Russian Orthodox Church. To commemorate this date, as well as the 2,000th anniversary of Christianity, a small rotunda was built in 2000.
Walking towards columns in the distance, you pass a large iron bell. Named the Foggy Bell, it was crafted in 1778 from melted-down guns captured from the Turks during the Russo-Turkish Wars. The French claimed it as a spoil of the Crimean War; it was returned to Sevastopol in 1913. When the Soviets closed the cathedral in 1924, the bell was put to use as a sounding beacon for approaching ships.
As you walk along the coastline, the columns distant columns now come sharply into focus. You have arrived at the ruins of the 1935 Basilica. Built in the sixth century B.C., this Greek temple was, at one time, lavishly decorated and some traces of that opulence still exist in the nearby well- preserved mosaics.
Beyond that, nestled among the ruins of ancient wineries, lies the Basilica within a Basilica. A church was originally built on this site in the sixth century, but in the ninth century, it was destroyed by an earthquake. A new basilica was built in the tenth century and remained there until it was destroyed by the Golden Horde in the fourteenth century. What remains reflects an interesting architectural pattern of two very distinct periods.

Getting There
From Sevastopol’s center, catch a minibus to Chersonesos, recognizable by the Russian Херсонес in the minibus’ window. If you’re willing to spend more you can easily travel to and from the site via taxi.

Tip
Summer visitors should pack a swimsuit! After a tour of the site’s ancient and medieval wonders, take a refreshing dip in the Black Sea.


Posted on by
Reply

Israel says it will not allow the ships to dock at Gaza, fearing the cargo might contain weapons and other items it wants to prevent reaching Hamas.

That’s from a BBC News piece updating the world on relations between Turkey and Israel.

Does anyone else see the problem with Israel’s decision to preemptively kill people who might have weapons for militants? Is Israel the sort of country from Speilberg’s Minority Report where the military operates on reports from psychics?

In my opinion, the best way to deal with a aid ship that might have contraband is to allow it to dock, point a warhead-laden rocket at the ship and search it bow to stern thrice over. If it’s clean, allow the goods to pass. If it’s dirty, well, you just started an international crisis where you are the victim.

It sure beats “death from above” commando tactics in international waters, doesn’t it?

Here in the States, we have a notion of “innocent until proven guilty.” It would serve Israel well to learn this and stop living in fear of her Muslim citizens.