Charles: February 2010 Archives

Available on iTunesU. I could not find a course website.

This is a series of 8 anthropology lectures on the topic Socities in Transition recorded at Linacre College, Oxford University during early 2009. Each podcast is just under an hour and audio only (occasional mention is made of slides). Each lecture is given by a different presenter. All are fairly academic in nature (a couple are quite dry and I found it hard to maintain concentration), but are still accessible to the non-expert. These lectures are not straight history, there is little discussion of historical events. Instead each podcast presents current research on the process of social transition during a notable period of history. They often provide an interesting snapshot (or at least intriguing tidbits) of life around the time of the transition.

The lectures are in chronological order, spanning the entirity of human history - and beyond. The first lecture is on the Neanderthals - their slow extinction and modern discovery. The next lecture deals with the spread of farming in South East Asia. Then follows an interesting lecture on the spread of metallurgy in the Bronze Age and what the metals meant to society at different times and places. Another interesting lecture details attempts to date and size the volcanic explosion at Thera (now Santorini). From this research the presenter trys to match up the likely effects with events and history in the region (mainly the Minoan society on Crete). The next two lectures are respectively on the beginning and end of Roman rule in Britain. Apparently the collapse of the British economy after the Romans left was particularly swift - previously common pottery and coins disappeared almost overnight and buildings quickly fell into disrepair. The last two lectures are on more modern topics - the industrial and the current information revolutions.

Worth a listen for background information on the timeperiods discussed.

A while ago I put up some photos from Dougga. Here are the best photos from the rest of that holiday in Tunisia. The set on Flickr is here.

This is a quick post about a coding problem that took longer than expected to solve. I have put an example solution here as a reference for myself or others, hopefully speeding up the task. I needed to create a dialog to connect to a local or remote JMX process. Essentially this would be very similar to the JConsole "New Connection" dialog. Initially I thought this would just be a standard component, but instead it took some trial and error (as well as digging through Sun documentation) to get the required functionality working.

Available on iTunesU. I could not find a course website.

These podcasts detail the life of the Carthaginian general Hannibal, often considered one of the greatest commanders of the ancient world. During the Second Punic War against the Roman Republic in the 3rd century BC, Hannibal led his army over the Alps into Italy. He then used superior strategy and tactics to defeat the Roman army at a number of engagements, resulting in the battle of Cannae - a devastating loss for Rome. After this, the Romans adopted many of Hannibal's techniques. At the Battle of Zama, Hannibal was defeated and Carthage lost the war.

The lectures were given by Patrick Hunt as part of the Stanford Continuing Studies Program sometime during 2007. I couldn't find a course website, but there are a few articles relating to the course. There are 8 lectures (strangely numbered 1 through 10), all of which are audio only and nearly two hours long (around 30MB in size). The first podcast is an interesting discussion on Carthaginian culture, in particular whether they really practiced child sacrifice. The second lecture introduces the First Punic War and Hannibal's father, Hamilcar Barca. The Second Punic War is covered over three lectures (along with an epilogue). The remaining three podcasts are dedicated to Hannibal's crossing of the Alps.

It seems Patrick Hunt organises regular expeditions to cross the Alps, trying to find archeological proof of where Hannibal crossed. Great attention is paid to how closely various mountain passes fit the ancient descriptions. Dr Hunt personally favours the Col de Clapier. If this historical event is of interest, then you will be well served. There is not one, not two, but three different first-person accounts of modern crossings of the Alps in attempts to follow Hannibal's footsteps: Hunt's; Ed Boenig, a student of Dr Hunt's; and John Hoyte's, who crossed the Col de Clapier in 1959 with an elephant (called Jumbo).

Apart from close concentration on a narrow historical time period, the series has many intriguing digressions. For instance, there is occasional mention of the meaning of Hannibal's name, "grace of Ba'al". Ba'al was the main Carthaginian deity, who supposedly lived on a mountain. Thus Dr Hunt suggests Hannibal would have had no fear of mountains. A bit of a stretch, but still interesting. If you have a particular interest in finding out about Hannibal's crossing of the Alps, then this is the podcast for you. However, there is still much to learn even if that is not your focus (and the second two alpine lectures can be safely skipped). On the downside, the first lecture (on the origins of Carthage) seems to be missing. Also, there is no sign of the lecture slides. Being able to see the maps and slides would have been particularly useful during discussions of which Alpine pass most closely matched ancient descriptions. Nevertheless, don't be put off by the long podcast length, this series is well worth a listen.