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Monthly Archives: May 2010

Notes on Roman Money.

06-May-10

http://childpsychiatryassociates.com/treatment-team/ronald_rinehart-200-2/ The top unit of value in the coinage of the late Republic in Rome was the aureus, which prior to Nero was approximately 1/42 of a pound of gold.  In 2010 dollars, where a pound of gold is worth about $14,000, the aureus takes on a value of approximately $330. The denarius, a silver coin, […]

HS.

05-May-10

http://landmarkinn.com/project/the-teller-room/ Last night I was reading up on the Roman monetary system, and was reminded that a sestertius was 1/4 of a denarius. A denarius was abbreviated with an X; and a sestertius, unaccountably, with an HS. What the hell was that H? And I figured it out: it’s not an H, it’s IIS, i.e. II […]

May.

05-May-10

Summer weather arrived this weekend – ninety degree days – and with it, an astonishing ascension of complexity in the life around me. In April solitary individuals would break the stillness – “What is that bird? Where is he? Let me figure it out.” – but now the forest is never silent, all kinds of […]

Unlimit their liability, and they won’t do this.

04-May-10

The BP spill is remarkable because the initial reportage seems to indicate that this was preventable, and can be laid at the feet of a specific Bush administration policy change in 2003. And now there is talk of fixing the oil-spill problem simply by making oil companies fiscally liable for the damage caused. That seems […]