The Roman Mysteries: The Colossus of Rhodes

Hello again, I'm back! This may be a slightly less detailed book review than usual, as I started this one months ago, in August, had to stop to finish my thesis and then catch up on everything else, then finished it a few days ago, while I was on holiday. All of which means my memory of it is a bit blurred (but see how dedicated a blogger I am, reading blog-related things while on holiday!)

Actually, part of the reason I read it while on holiday was that I was in the Mediterranean and it seemed particularly appropriate. I had brought The Colossus of Rhodes and Eclipse, the third book in the Twilight series (yes I know, you can all lose all respect for me and stop reading now!). Twilight, for the record, is a weird phenomenon - the books are badly plotted and the central relationship positively disturbing - but can be strangely addictive - see Cleolinda's explanation.

Anyway, I'd brought Eclipse thinking it would be a good trashy holiday read, but when I got to Croatia, I found I really didn't want to read something set in a cold, wet place with a climate that sounds pretty similar to Britain (in Meyer's descriptions anyway, which I understand are not actually very accurate). Luckily, The Colossus of Rhodes was much better suited, as the descriptions of Mediterranean life in the Roman Mysteries series are always spot on (the result of meticulous research, which must have been fun to do!). Even though I was in Dalmatia/Illyricum, not Greece, it felt much more appropriate for the setting. (We were very very lucky with the weather, it was absolutely gorgeous, so the last thing I wanted to do was read about rain!).

Kefalonia, near Ithaca, one of the islands the children pass by, and also the setting and filming location for Captain Corelli's Mandolin

This installment of the Roman Mysteries series was as enjoyable as ever, the characters well-drawn and their plight both believeable and scary (the dwarf hiding on the shoulders of a very tall man was a bit odd for me, but it provided a nice puzzle to solve - the bad guy being known as both Magnus and Minimus - and I'm sure kids love it!). The action at the end is especially exciting, and has a bit of a North by Northwest feel to it, which is great fun. As usual, there are references to issues that I hope younger readers of the series are unaware of, but that older readers can spot, in this case the fate of the particularly pretty girls and boys sent away to slavery in Halicarnassus.

A 'North by Northwest' moment from the TV adaptation (© 2008 LEG)

Most of the captured children in this book are put to work making carpets, which affects their eyesight and breathing. I don't know how likely this would be in ancient Rome - I am reasonably well-informed about Roman slavery, but I know very little about Roman textiles. The more usual example of the worst sort of Roman slavery would be the silver mines, but that would be unsuitable for children. The carpet-work, though, does reflect modern child slavery, and there is some information at the back of the book about modern slavery. The link listed in the book is now out of date, but you can get information about it here, from National Geographic. Since it is more important that children learn about modern injustices and how they can fight against them than about ancient Roman silver mines, I think this was a very good decision.

Another interesting development in this book is Flavia's evolving relationship with a new, real, character, Gaius Valerius Flaccus. It's always fun to see real Roman characters appear in the stories, and of course, it may hopefully lead to a renewed interest in their work - in Flaccus' case, his epic poem Argonautica. Apollonius Rhodius' Greek Argonautica, which Flaccus' poem constantly references, is referred to throughout the book as well, as the children are studying it with their Greek tutor Aristo. They also refer to the mythic connotations of the areas they sail to, including Scylla and Charybdis (between Sicily and the toe of Italy) and Ithaca (Odysseus' home). The idea, I think, is that this trip inspires Flaccus to write his own Argonautica.

Flaccus is an interesting choice for a character, especially one who it seems will be rather important in Flavia's life, as we know very little about him. We don't know when Flaccus wrote the Argonautica, though it has been the cause of some debate, and it has been suggested that he published it book by book during the reign of Vespasian, so he should, in theory, have finished it by now. On the other hand, it has also been suggested that he may have died before finishing it, which would favour a starting date closer to Titus' reign than Vespasian's, and so fits the book better. He died around AD 90, so if he has met Flavia in AD 80, they don't have long before he kicks the bucket, and if he was really as young as the book implies he is, that is especially sad. Overall, it works reasonably well; our lack of information about his life means that it is entirely possible that he wrote most of the Argonautica after AD 80, and that he was young at the time, and we don't know much at all about his family, so he fits in (and, of course, a bit of artistic licence never hurt anyone).

The book has a wonderful solution to the problem of Flaccus' lost works, always a fun thing for the author of an historical novel to play with (as Graves did in I, Claudius, when he had Claudius describe the lost work of Pollio). Flaccus' non-Argonautica-based poetry is filled with a beautiful poem by a 19th/20th century Greek poet, Constantine Cavafy, which is a lovely solution to the problem of how to get a lost poem into a book, and which fits the themes of the story perfectly.

The meaning of 'Flaccus' is given the perfect translation 'Floppy' - suitable for kids, as it is implied it refers to his hair, but we adult readers get the picture!

The emotional through-line of the book, though, is not Flavia and Flaccus, but Lupus' search for his mother, which once again made me cry. I won't spoil it here because it's a beautiful story - a bit excessively bittersweet for my taste (I find just-missed opportunities incredibly frustrating and I tend to like all-out tragedy or happy endings!) but very lovely, and not quite as miserable and depressing as, at one point, I feared it would be. As ever, the book does not shy away from the true horror of what has happened to poor Lupus (and to Nubia, who is forced to spend weeks on the same ship that she was transported on as a slave) and his anger and frustration is entirely understandable.

All in all, this was another thoroughly enjoyable read and I'm very glad I brought it with me on holiday, even if it is set in a slightly different part of the Med!

Photo taken from the deck of a boat in the Mediterranean, while reading a book set on a boat in the Mediterranean - great fun! (That's actually the coast of Croatia)

From Lional Bopage...........Comrade Haththotuwegama...

From Lional Bopage...........

I was extremely sad to hear the news of the death of Comrade Haththotuwegama. Even though I have not been in regular contact with him for some time, I was more than aware of the significant role he and his group of open theatre artists have played in raising the consciousness of the ordinary people of Sri Lanka on important social issues.
He was a Sama- Samajist at the time I first met him at Richmond College in Galle. He taught me English. I remember him being an excellent orator and was extremely popular amongst us, the college students.

By the time I was released from prison in the late seventies, Comrade Gamini had already established/founded the Wayside and Open theatre Group. I had the pleasure of meeting him on numerous occasions. I also took part in one of his workshops, which helped me innumerably when I was running/a part of the Songs of Liberation.

I still have memories of the time when some of my fellow JVP comrades took part in some of his training techniques. Their mixture of enthusiasm, interest and impatience, as they gradually shed the shackles of their rigid acting styles, will always stay with me. This led us to conceive a new drama, Milana vu Malak Nove (Not a flower withered away). This drama was based on the true life story of the late comrade Premawathie Manamperi. His techniques allowed us in a 'natural' way to get to the heart of the social issues we wished to share with our audiences, without being didactic about it. Unfortunately it was banned by the ruling party of the day.
One of his enduring qualities was that he was always a straightforward and very hospitable human being who was always socially engaged with the issues of the day. Though we did not always see eye to eye on all political issues, I never doubted his sincerity and commitment to the betterment of all the human beings who lived in Sri Lanka.

His contribution in the field of culture and in particular the theatre and English Literature was immeasurable. He will leave a void in the cultural life of the island that will be hard to fill.

I will not only remember and respect his contribution to the betterment both cultural and political to the social life of the people of Sri Lanka, but on a more personal level I will never forget the warmth of his smile which not only radiated his genuine love and interest of the people around him but for all the people who inhabit Sri Lanka.

As a fellow traveler who shares his political vision, I take this opportunity to salute him and to extend my deepest sympathy to his bereaved family and friends.

Lionel Bopage

Castro The Fallen by Rohana Pothuliyadda

Castro The Fallen

Fainted Fidel Castro had been fallen soon after addressing a rally.

Shouldered wavy cruelty coming along
insane stupidity woven in to pecks
of the venomous serpent ballet of vengefulness
raising against the gigantic walls of barriers

fought utmost still so feel fatigue at the end ?

Just for the love for voyages
marched comrades along with
as they anchored at
vivid and dream harbors
did you feel solitude?

the sky full of eagles
tearing off the radiant sun flower
the undestroyed historical memories of struggle
demolished the warmth of heart in its bottom
did those memories hurt you?

Youths well wearing the fake jewels
made of cheap wishes and false
drift towards the neighbors indeed
crippling legs due sadness of being passed
that crossed leagues of outstrips

Standing all alone in a world
of hunting dogs have no boundaries
Bearing the weight of the nation
on the shoulder tired and exhausted
beloved so far you ever struggled
did you kissed the land of ever?

The Sky has been Polluted [අහස හැඩි වී ඇත ]
Rohana Pothuliyadda
2004 December

[Translated by E.A.  Dawson Preethi]

NASA Awards Education Research Grants to Minority Universities

NASA has awarded education grants to five minority serving institutions to develop innovative projects in support of higher education teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, disciplines.

NASA's Minority University Research and Education Programs Small Programs project is designed to enhance students' academic experiences and encourage underserved and underrepresented groups to pursue STEM careers, which are critical to NASA's missions.

Grants were awarded to the following colleges, universities and partnerships:

• Navajo Technical College in Crownpoint, N.M.
• Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University in Tallahassee, Fla.
• New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, N.M.
• North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, N.C.
• Sistema Universitario Ana G. Mendez Inc. in Caguas, Puerto Rico

The five projects will receive funding ranging from $90,800 to $345,850. They are eligible for renewal for two years, based on project performance and funding availability. NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida manages the project for the agency.

For project descriptions, click on "Selected Proposals" and look for "Minority University Research and Education Programs Small Programs Competitive Grant Opportunity" at:

http://nspires.nasaprs.com

For more information about NASA's education programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education

Antarctic Airborne Science Mission Nears Mid-Point

With seven science flights over Antarctica completed in the first 13 days of Operation Ice Bridge's first southern campaign in NASA's DC-8 flying laboratory, the mission is on track to complete its planned flights by mid-November.

The mission has 17 planned flights over different parts of the continent, focusing on the ice sheet, glaciers, and sea ice in West Antarctica. Which flight target is flown on a given day is largely determined by difficult-to-forecast Antarctic weather conditions. Several of the instruments onboard cannot gather data through clouds. Twice so far, however, flights have been scrubbed at the last minute due to snow at the airport in southernmost Chile.

Mission planners use a mix of weather forecasting tools and satellite observations to make their daily decisions about when and where to fly. In addition, updates from meteorologists at the airport provide critical information. "The Antarctic weather is a terrible problem for us," says Ice Bridge project scientist Seelye Martin of the University of Washington, Seattle. "We could not operate without the support we receive from the Chilean meteorologists here."

As of the landing of the Oct. 27 flight, completed targets included: three flights over glaciers, two over sea ice, one over the Getz ice shelf, and one to study the topography of the ice sheet on the mission's closest approach to the South Pole.

The Getz Ice Shelf was the target of the first flight on Oct. 16. Thwaites Glacier was the focus of the flight on Oct. 18, with Pine Island Glacier the target of a high-altitude flight on Oct. 20 and a low-altitude flight on Oct. 27.

"Pine Island Glacier is a major focus for our mission," says Martin. "We have four flights planned for this glacier. One of our hopes with these flights is to understand the detailed topography under the floating ice tongue. That topography controls the rate of melting there."

The mission's first sea ice flight on Oct. 21 over the Bellingshausen and Amundsen seas was a "pioneering flight," according to Martin. "We don't know what the thickness of the sea ice is here. These will be the first direct measurements of sea ice in this area. This area is important because it is the only Antarctic sector where the sea ice is actually retreating."

Martin was excited about the prospect that the combined data from two different instruments would give scientists a new way to make more accurate measurements of sea ice thickness. Thickness of sea ice is estimated from measurements of the depth of the snow and ice visible above the sea surface. But scientists have not been able to distinguish accurately how much of this material above the sea is snow and how much is ice. An accurate measurement of the two is needed to improve their calculation of overall ice thickness.

"With this flight we did something that has not been done successfully before," says Martin. "We flew a snow radar from the University of Kansas that is designed to measure the snow depth on sea ice and the laser Airborne Topographic Mapper from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility to measure the sea surface and the height of the combined snow/ice layer above the sea. If everything worked as planned, this will give us the first combined measurement of the 'layer cake' and the snow layer to an accuracy of about 2 inches."

The second sea ice flight on Oct. 24 flew over the Weddell Sea for low-altitude flights some 1500 feet above the sea under sporadically cloudy conditions.

The farthest flight of the mission took place on Oct. 25. The target was a portion of the circle of latitude at 86 degrees south. This area has been intensely mapped by NASA's ICESat satellite because the spacecraft's orbit only goes as far south as this latitude. By remapping the ICESat data points with another laser-based topographic instrument -- the Land, Vegetation, and Ice Sensor (LVIS) -- scientists hope to improve the accuracy of the ICESat data record and prepare to extend these critical ice surface change observations into the future.

Links:

Operation Ice Bridge
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/ice_bridge/index.html

Ice Bridge Twitter
http://twitter.com/IceBridge

Ice Bridge Blog
http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/icebridge/

Fermi Telescope Caps First Year With Glimpse of Space-Time

During its first year of operations, NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope mapped the extreme sky with unprecedented resolution and sensitivity.

It captured more than 1,000 discrete sources of gamma rays -- the highest-energy form of light. Capping these achievements was a measurement that provided rare experimental evidence about the very structure of space and time, unified as space-time in Einstein's theories.

"Physicists would like to replace Einstein's vision of gravity -- as expressed in his relativity theories -- with something that handles all fundamental forces," said Peter Michelson, principal investigator of Fermi's Large Area Telescope, or LAT, at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. "There are many ideas, but few ways to test them."

Many approaches to new theories of gravity picture space-time as having a shifting, frothy structure at physical scales trillions of times smaller than an electron. Some models predict that the foamy aspect of space-time will cause higher-energy gamma rays to move slightly more slowly than photons at lower energy.

Such a model would violate Einstein's edict that all electromagnetic radiation -- radio waves, infrared, visible light, X-rays and gamma rays -- travels through a vacuum at the same speed.

On May 10, 2009, Fermi and other satellites detected a so-called short gamma ray burst, designated GRB 090510. Astronomers think this type of explosion happens when neutron stars collide. Ground-based studies show the event took place in a galaxy 7.3 billion light-years away. Of the many gamma ray photons Fermi's LAT detected from the 2.1-second burst, two possessed energies differing by a million times. Yet after traveling some seven billion years, the pair arrived just nine-tenths of a second apart.

"This measurement eliminates any approach to a new theory of gravity that predicts a strong energy dependent change in the speed of light," Michelson said. "To one part in 100 million billion, these two photons traveled at the same speed. Einstein still rules."

Fermi's secondary instrument, the Gamma ray Burst Monitor, has observed low-energy gamma rays from more than 250 bursts. The LAT observed 12 of these bursts at higher energy, revealing three record setting blasts.

GRB 090510 displayed the fastest observed motions, with ejected matter moving at 99.99995 percent of light speed. The highest energy gamma ray yet seen from a burst -- 33.4 billion electron volts or about 13 billion times the energy of visible light -- came from September's GRB 090902B. Last year's GRB 080916C produced the greatest total energy, equivalent to 9,000 typical supernovae.

Scanning the entire sky every three hours, the LAT is giving Fermi scientists an increasingly detailed look at the extreme universe. "We've discovered more than a thousand persistent gamma ray sources -- five times the number previously known," said project scientist Julie McEnery at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "And we've associated nearly half of them with objects known at other wavelengths."

Blazars -- distant galaxies whose massive black holes emit fast-moving jets of matter toward us -- are by far the most prevalent source, now numbering more than 500. In our own galaxy, gamma ray sources include 46 pulsars and two binary systems where a neutron star rapidly orbits a hot, young star.

"The Fermi team did a great job commissioning the spacecraft and starting its science observations," said Jon Morse, Astrophysics Division director at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "And now Fermi is more than fulfilling its unique scientific promise for making novel, high-impact discoveries about the extreme universe and the fabric of space-time."‪

NASA's Fermi Gamma Ray Space Telescope is an astrophysics and particle physics partnership, developed in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, along with important contributions from academic institutions and partners in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the United States.

Related Links:

› Multimedia related to the Oct. 28, 2009, NASA briefing on Fermi's findings
› NASA's Fermi Finds Gamma-ray Galaxy Surprises
› NASA's Fermi Mission, Namibia's HESS Telescopes Explore a Blazar
› Active Galaxies Flare and Fade in Fermi Telescope All-Sky Movie
› Continent-sized Radio Telescope Takes Close-ups of Fermi Active Galaxies
› NASA's Fermi Telescope Probes Dozens of Pulsars

Dedication - [Mahesh Munasinghe]

Dedication**
By: Mahesh Munasinghe - April, 2009


I am all alone here,
at this round-about.

All of them,
All the men and women
The group of professionals,
Intellectuals, poets and authors
Those who are called themselves,
Socialistic, democratic and radical
have left me here…

Most of them were taken away
Strayed as media prey
Some of them willingly
Some have escaped..
Some were disappeared
And some were shot dead…

All are gathered
there, at the next round-about
attracted to the radiance of celebration
born from lunacy of war…
This is the moment of victory..
The air gets vibrant
with the resonance of applause,
firecrackers , fireworks
The excited Sinhalese are getting warm
With the growing figures of dead

They gazed at me with disgust
As I stood, silently with this placard,
I was called a lunatic
Whenever my voice was raised,
I was attacked
I was called a traitor.
Whenever I became active,
I was arrested
I was called a terrorist.

“Kill and die!
For a sparkling tomorrow of my motherland!”
The bitter lie…,
further assures that,
“The war is humanitarian.
It brings peace.”

Hindus, who can’t recognize
the blood of your own people,
your bullet will bring more comfort to me…
Christians and Islamic followers,
If you have just finished the confession,
Your shot won’t loose its target…
Buddhists, devoted to Buddha,
if the bullet released for the sake of your creed,
You are absolutely sinless…..

Tomorrow some one will come ,
remove this placard with slogans
from my stiffened lifeless fingers
and bury me somewhere…
I won’t be here anymore,
At this round-bout
to listen to the exultant applaud
I won’t see the tomorrow
of the children of hatred
Of those who died
till the last Sinhalese
willing and wishing the death
till the end of the last Tamil

Yet,
Another one still loves humanity
Regardless the race, caste and religion
will come from somewhere
And raise this placard
dropped from my fingers
At the same round-about…

This is what written there…
Stop war!
Stop racial elimination!

Then I will see
from those who remained,
still alive,
one by one ,
would be moving back to him.…

** This is dedicated to the handful of people in the country who stand against the racial elimination.

Translated by: Kalpana Ambrose

Psychoanalytical Notion of Aksharaya - [Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D. ]

Psychoanalytical Notion of Aksharaya

The feeling that they are more important to mother than father makes them feel that they are wonderful, and since they are already grown up and need not do anything to establish their greatness because - and as long as - mother loves them ...
-Erich Fromm

Asoka Handagama's controversial movie Aksharaya discusses one of the bitter and hidden issues of the society which is generally termed as incest. Although the movie received a major criticism and viewed via Sinhala Buddhist and Victorian moral spectacles the incestuous relations were discussed in the Jathaka Stories as well as in the Holy Bible. Incest has been documented in most civilizations. As a matter of fact its prevailing in the contemporary society hidden inside the walls. Unfortunately this topic is not discussed scientifically or otherwise and many feel uncomfortable to talk about it.

Incest refers to any sexual activity between close relatives often within the immediate family irrespective of the ages of the participants and irrespective of their consent , that is illegally or socially taboo. Incest is considered as the oldest crime.

The Jathaka stories reveals an incestuous attempt in Seggu Jathaka. As the story goes a father takes his young and beautiful daughter to the forest to check his daughter's sexual purity. The Holy Bible describes father – daughter incest in the story of Lot and how his two daughters got their father drunk on wine and engaged in sexual intercourse.

Although incest aversion is normally adduced to a specialized cognitive module which regraded as imprinting mechanism incest could be found in most of the societies. Some studies show that incest between father and daughter is the most common kind of incest.

Asoka Handagama

Asoka Handagama one of the outstanding film directors of our time boldly deals with this sensitive topic. As the film narrates the female magistrate who was deeply traumatized following the tragic death of her mother and the incestuous relationship between her father franticly attached to her 12 year old son. Both father and daughter are known for their outstanding manipulative skills, which contribute to their ability to keep their relationship inside the closet but confused, and self-blaming. Eventually the father becomes emotionally numbed and sexually non reactive towards his wife / daughter.

There have been many scientific studies based on incestuous relationships and its psychological repercussions. Based on the studies done by Joseph D. LaBarbera Vanderbilt University Nashville Tennessee, characteristic of families in which father-daughter incest occurs to women's sex-role functioning and attitudes toward heterosexual interactions changes drastically. The results show that a sexualized father-daughter relationship was correlated with negative male traits (e.g., arrogance), low levels of positive female traits (emotionality), and negative attitudes toward male sexuality and female competitiveness. The above mentioned features could be compared with the female magistrate of Aksharaya who was unhappily trapped in a traumatic relationship with her own father.

Aksharaya describes the incestuous relationship in a semi artistic form that could be compared with Sylvia Plath’s “The Beekeeper’s Daughter. The emotional relationship between the Supreme Court Judge (father ) and the Magistrate (daughter) is somewhat different from the Electra Complex which is depicted by the American female poet Sylvia Plath’s “The Beekeeper’s Daughter. But in the mean time both families carry their tormented memories. The relationship between the daughter and a father who occupy an important position in their traumatic childhood and has a profound influence on their present life owing to the intrusion of the father image . In other words it could be described as distorted Electra complex. ( according to Freudian Psychoanalytic theory female's psycho sexual development involves a sexual attachment to her father, and is analogous to a boy's attachment to his mother that forms the basis of the Oedipus complex). Hence Aksharaya narrates the distorted Electra complex that was never discussed in the history of Sinhala Cinema.

In psychoanalytic theory, the psychosexual development of children between the ages of three and five is characterized by incestuous desires toward the parent of the opposite sex. Aksharaya touches both father / daughter , mother / son incestuous connections. The work of John Bowlby on the development of the infant's attachment to his parents in the second half of the first year reflects the fruitfulness of an integration of psychoanalytic insights. The Magistrate's 12 year old son who is psycho sexually immature highly fascinated by his mothers breasts. Mothers extended breastfeeding and over attachment creates a pathological bonding.

The Magistrate and her son posses introverted pathological attachment which could be explained by Melanie Klein's Object Relation Theory. The Object relations theory emphasizes interpersonal relations, primarily in the family and especially between mother and child. The"object-relations" refers to the self-structure that is internalized in early childhood, which functions as a blueprint for establishing and maintaining future relationships. The Magistrate's 12 year old boy was in a stage which could be expressed as relationship seeking rather than pleasure seeking. His psychological dysfunction is an expression of being stuck at a stage of development and unable to mature further evolves in to aggression.

Aksharaya - A Letter of Fire

As the theory of Object Relations explains dysfunctional and symptomatic behaviors are really an immature attempt to resolve early traumas. The child lacks emotional maturity, he is in a state of "identity diffusion" and lacks the ego strength necessary to form and maintain healthy relationships. His maladaptive relational pattern leads to a deep insecurity. In the movie the child repeatedly asks his mother's permission to play rugby. This could be an attempt to seek of masculine identity. The killing of the prostitute is the metaphor , a dramatic transformation and establishing his masculine footprint.

Freud wrote that every boy has an Oedipus Complex - every boy represses his sexual desire for his mother and his jealousy toward his father and experiences emotional conflicts. But the magistrate's son goes a few steps further. He is a victim of a condition so called “Mother fixation” and obsess about his mother ,demands devotion - not just love , shows jealousy, anxiety and insecurity and acts like a narcissist.

The infant-mother relationship is pivotal to the child's emerging personality. Freud stated that for the baby, his mother is "unique, without parallel, laid down unalterably for a whole lifetime, as the first and strongest love object and as the prototype of all later love relations for both sexes." The early care giving relationship influences the child's developing cognitive ability, shapes his capacity to modulate affect, teaches him to empathize with the feelings of others, and even determines the shape and functioning of his brain. As Dr Peter Fonagy writes (Pathological attachments and Therapeutic Action ) There is overwhelming pressure on the child to develop a representation for internal states. Within the bio-psycho-social attachment system the child seeks out aspects of the environment contingently related to his self-expressions. Failing to find his current state mirrored, the child is likely to internalize the mother’s actual state as part of his or her own self structure. The child incorporates into his nascent self-structure a representation of the other.

Mother-son incest may be involved in the pathogenesis of a particular subtype of narcissistic personality disorder. Male patients with this disorder have a grandiose view of themselves as entitled to occupy a special position with others, combined with a paranoid tendency to anticipate imminent betrayal. The enormous guilt related to perceived oedipal transgressions leads these patients to fear retaliation from an enraged, vindictive, and castrating father at any moment. (Glen O. Gabbard – The Role of Mother Son Incest in the Pathogenesis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder)

Through out the movie , Aksharaya implies the erogenous erotic component for the mother during breast-feeding. The maternal seduction which occurred through breastfeeding reverberates. A traumatized woman who was trapped in an incestuous relationship does not want to consider her son as an independent unit. A woman who was deprived of a healthy sexual relationship derives psycho sexual satisfaction via her biological unit – the son.

This caused a paradox. A dichotomy has always existed between the breast as a nourishing object and the breast as an erotic object. In 1900 Freud wrote that "at the woman's breast love and hunger meet." For the breast satisfies both the alimentary and the sexual impulses. The nipple is a sexual object throughout Freudian metapsychology. So Aksharaya is no exception.

The film portrays psychosexual traumas within an upper middle class Sri Lankan family who were tormented by their past present and future. Father , mother and the son are affected by the extreme experiences of victimization and are associated with maladaptive and inflexible personality traits. The family members have enduring patterns of instability in relationships, goals, values, and mood which eventually leads to a catastrophe.

-Dr Ruwan M Jayatunge M.D.

More on Aksharaya-
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1019881/

Five-year-old Romanian weightlifter becomes Internet star

Giuliano Stroe has six-pack abs before turning six years old. And he's also in the Guinness Book of World Records before he can probably even read it.

Though it's highly unusual (and possibly unhealthy) for a child to start weight training at such a young age, the pre-schooler entered the record books earlier this year after completing the fastest ever 10-meter walk with a weight ball between the legs, which is both both highly impressive and highly specific. Since then, a four-minute video of Stroe has hit the Internet and made him a viral sensation.

It looks like a training montage from a Rocky movie, minus the Survivor soundtrack. (And, interestingly, Guiliano Stroe is almost the same size as Sylvester Stallone.)

The highlights:

0:32 -- The "Crouching Tiger" wall flip.

0:41 -- Backflips on the kitchen table. Even Richard Heene thinks that's questionable parenting.

1:43 -- Doing barbell curls with toddlers dancing to 50 Cent in the background.

3:19 -- More flipping, this time from a high bar.

3:39 -- My arms hurt from just watching that.

The pre-schooler's gymnastic skills are every bit as impressive as his weightlighting prowess. Both sports are national obsessions in Romania, so Stroe should have plenty of options when he becomes a teenager ... in 2017.

Ares I-X at the Launch Pad

NASA's Ares I-X rocket is seen on Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Monday, Oct. 26, 2009. The flight test of Ares I-X, scheduled for today, Oct. 27, 2009, will provide NASA with an early opportunity to test and prove flight characteristics, hardware, facilities and ground operations associated with the Ares I.

Robot Armada Might Scale New Worlds

An armada of robots may one day fly above the mountain tops of Saturn's moon Titan, cross its vast dunes and sail in its liquid lakes.

Wolfgang Fink, visiting associate in physics at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena says we are on the brink of a great paradigm shift in planetary exploration, and the next round of robotic explorers will be nothing like what we see today.

"The way we explore tomorrow will be unlike any cup of tea we've ever tasted," said Fink, who was recently appointed as the Edward and Maria Keonjian Distinguished Professor in Microelectronics at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "We are departing from traditional approaches of a single robotic spacecraft with no redundancy that is Earth-commanded to one that allows for having multiple, expendable low-cost robots that can command themselves or other robots at various locations at the same time."

Fink and his team members at Caltech, the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of Arizona are developing autonomous software and have built a robotic test bed that can mimic a field geologist or astronaut, capable of working independently and as part of a larger team. This software will allow a robot to think on its own, identify problems and possible hazards, determine areas of interest and prioritize targets for a close-up look.

The way things work now, engineers command a rover or spacecraft to carry out certain tasks and then wait for them to be executed. They have little or no flexibility in changing their game plan as events unfold; for example, to image a landslide or cryovolcanic eruption as it happens, or investigate a methane outgassing event.

"In the future, multiple robots will be in the driver's seat," Fink said. These robots would share information in almost real time. This type of exploration may one day be used on a mission to Titan, Mars and other planetary bodies. Current proposals for Titan would use an orbiter, an air balloon and rovers or lake landers.

In this mission scenario, an orbiter would circle Titan with a global view of the moon, with an air balloon or airship floating overhead to provide a birds-eye view of mountain ranges, lakes and canyons. On the ground, a rover or lake lander would explore the moon's nooks and crannies. The orbiter would "speak" directly to the air balloon and command it to fly over a certain region for a closer look. This aerial balloon would be in contact with several small rovers on the ground and command them to move to areas identified from overhead.

"This type of exploration is referred to as tier-scalable reconnaissance," said Fink. "It's sort of like commanding a small army of robots operating in space, in the air and on the ground simultaneously."

A rover might report that it's seeing smooth rocks in the local vicinity, while the airship or orbiter could confirm that indeed the rover is in a dry riverbed - unlike current missions, which focus only on a global view from far above but can't provide information on a local scale to tell the rover that indeed it is sitting in the middle of dry riverbed.

A current example of this type of exploration can best be seen at Mars with the communications relay between the rovers and orbiting spacecraft like the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. However, that information is just relayed and not shared amongst the spacecraft or used to directly control them.

"We are basically heading toward making robots that command other robots," said Fink, who is director of Caltech's Visual and Autonomous Exploration Systems Research Laboratory, where this work has taken place.

"One day an entire fleet of robots will be autonomously commanded at once. This armada of robots will be our eyes, ears, arms and legs in space, in the air, and on the ground, capable of responding to their environment without us, to explore and embrace the unknown," he added.

Papers describing this new exploration are published in the journal "Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine" and in the Proceedings of the SPIE.

For more information on this work, visit http://autonomy.caltech.edu . More information on JPL missions is at http:/www.jpl.nasa.gov/ .

Citadel of Bones - [E.A. Dawson Preethi]

Citadel of bones

This is my great citadel,
made of the bones
of millions of men and women
died and gone
hewed and killed...

Skulls are placed
with open and empty eye holes
allowing the gentle breeze
to bring in the ashes of dead

The hip-joints
suffered with labor pains
displayed as souvenirs
reminding that no space left
for a single rise against my race

Unbent back bones
are kept in a line
in a secret chamber
as an alarm,
striking a chord…
day and night,
for my wretched cohorts,
who forget the things overnight
that……
“Them”,
those who bore those bones,
rose against us!

E.A. Dawson Preethi
271009
[Translated by Kalpana Ambrose]

2012: Is it the End of the World as We Know It?

In director Roland Emmerich’s newest disaster film, the entire world comes to a cataclysmic end in the year 2012. The earth beneath our feet shifts, causing buildings to collapse and tidal waves to form, killing millions and leaving only a small percentage of the population struggling to escape on a limited number of ships built by the government for this very purpose.

It’s not like we didn’t now this was coming. We were warned and that’s not just a line from the movie. Here’s what the folks at National Geographic have to say about the truth beyond the legend.

The Maya believed that everything — including creation and destruction — occurred in cycles. Their calendar spanned five cycles, each lasting approximately 5,200 years. At the end of each cycle before this one, the Maya believed the current, flawed creation had to be destroyed for the world to be born again. Some believe the end of the current cycle on December 21, 2012, is an apocalyptic sign. And those who see a connection between the complex and incredibly accurate Maya calendar and a prophecy that the world will end in 2012 point to an unexpected discovery made by Princeton University scientist Adam Maloof as proof.

On Sunday, November 8, 2009, at 8 pm, National Geographic Channel examines the evidence behind the Maya calendar prophecies in 2012: Countdown to Armageddon. The special follows Maloof to three continents on a detective story that spans eons — with clues embedded in the oldest rocks on the planet.

In this special, you’ll see the investigation of identical rock shifts in both Norway and Australia, take a closer looks at the ruins of Chichén Itzá, which some believe to be the physical embodiment of the Maya calendar, and examine the Dresden Codex — the most comprehensive source for Maya astronomy, which has been locked in a high-security vault.

Is there proof that the Maya knew what they were talking about when they predicted the end of the world? Watch 2012: Countdown to Armageddon on November 8 on the National Geographic Channel, then catch 2012 the movie opening in theaters on November 13.

Video “Maya Doomsday Prophecy” – The Maya calendar will end on December 21, 2012. Are we three years from the end of the world?

Video “The Maya’s Lost Civilization” – The abrupt abandonment of the Maya’s great cities has stumped scholars for centuries

For more information visit:
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com

Tattooed Mars

Close

This high-resolution picture from the HiRISE camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows twisting dark trails criss-crossing light-colored terrain on the Martian surface. Newly formed trails like these had presented researchers with a tantalizing mystery but are now known to be the work of miniature wind vortices known to occur on the red planet, in other words Martian dust devils. Such spinning columns of rising air heated by the warm surface are also common in dry and desert areas on planet Earth. Typically lasting only a few minutes, dust devils become visible as they pick up loose red-colored dust leaving the darker and heavier sand beneath intact. Ironically, dust devils have been credited with unexpectedly cleaning the solar panels of the Mars rovers.

JPL's 'Green' Space Flight Building Debuts with Ribbon-Cutting

NASA's "greenest" building to date -- an environmentally friendly Flight Projects Center at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. -- is now open for business, following a ribbon-cutting ceremony today attended by lawmakers and local dignitaries.

The building houses missions during their design and development phases. It will enable engineers and scientists from various countries to collaborate more closely during these critical mission phases.

"It seems fitting that the new building, where teams will plan future space missions that use new technologies, also has the latest 'green' technologies to help JPL do its part to improve our environment here on Earth," said JPL Director Charles Elachi, who helped cut the ribbon at today's ceremony.

Also attending today's ceremony were U.S. Rep. David Drier; La Canada-Flintridge Mayor Laura Olhasso; staff representing U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff; and Caltech President Jean-Lou Chameau.

The building has received the "LEED Gold Certification" under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, set up by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council. It is the first NASA building to achieve that certification. To qualify, buildings must meet several criteria. For example, they must make efficient use of water, energy and resources, and provide a healthy and comfortable indoor workspace.

The many "green" features of the new building include:

• A living roof to keep the building cool in summer months and warm in the winter. Desert plants on the roof and other landscaping require 72 percent less water than a typical Southern California landscape design.
  
• Outdoor lighting is used for safety purposes only and is directed toward the ground, reducing the amount of light pollution that escapes to the night sky.
  
• Low-flow faucets and toilets reduce water use by 40 percent compared with typical fixtures.
  
• Improved wall insulation, efficient chillers and boilers and window shading devices.
  
• The paints and other surface materials have low levels of toxic fumes.
  
• The heating and cooling system is "smart" -- it knows whether people are in a room and adjusts the temperature and ventilation accordingly.
  
• The janitorial staff uses green cleaning products and practices.

More than 75 percent of the waste generated during construction of the new building was diverted from a landfill to a local recycling facility. Wood was acquired from Forest Stewardship Council-certified suppliers, ensuring sustainable harvesting of trees.

More information about the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system and the U.S. Green Building Council is online at http://www.usgbc.org .

More information about JPL is online at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov . The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

The Emperor’s Clothes - [Mahesh Munasinghe]

The Emperor’s Clothes

Do not question
the numbers
when speaking of
your dead sons
accept quietly
your death dues.
Hush! Don’t worry!
just in case
you trouble
Our Army Officers.

Gentlemen of the Black Robes,
you who were called traitors,
we know your Glory!
Hush! Shut your ears!
No Legal Action against
The Power Holders now
just in case
you distress
Their Leader.

A billion ends with nine zeros!
war is indeed costlyon what,
pray, was it all spent?
Hush! No questions please!
Just in case
you embarrass
Our Rulers.

The liberated are free
in detention camps,
should another
Liberator descend to
free them.
Hush, Make no noise!
just is case
Our Sensitive Parliament
collapses
At such Heavy Questions.

Do not inquire
about the corpses
appearing here and there
of course, once in a way
Disappearances do Happen!
Hush! Don’t worry!
just in case
The Power and Glory
of our King
that rises by the day
Shatters.

Hungry? Just a little patience!
don’t you know?
this is only the effect
of a world wide crisis.
Hush! Shut the Door!
stay Indoors..
Just in case
You expose
Our apprehensive government
shying away
in Stage Fright
from The People

Hear nothing!
See nothing!
Say nothing.!
Until the little child
who saw through
the Emperor’s Clothes
…Into the Nakedness,
Arrives
To Awaken Us.

Mahesh Munasinghe
August 2009
[Translator Unknown]

Astronauts to Fly Amelia Earhart Watch, Scarf

Along with the obvious thrill of launching into space, astronaut Shannon Walker's flight to the space station next year will hold a sentimental and historical significance. Flying alongside Walker will be the watch of Amelia Earhart, the legendary aviator who was the first woman to fly as a passenger across the Atlantic Ocean. Earhart later became the first woman to pilot a plane across that same ocean in a solo flight.

Earhart was one of the first female pilots best known for her two trans Atlantic flights. She was also a charter member and the first president of The Ninety-Nines, an international organization of licensed women pilots from 35 countries that has more than 5,500 members worldwide. While there are other female pilot organizations in various states and countries, nearly all women of achievement in aviation are past or current members of The Ninety-Nines. Walker is among those women.

Earhart wore the watch during her two trans Atlantic flights, “one as a passenger and one as a solo flight,” said Joan Kerwin, director of The Ninety-Nines and member for 39 years.

When asked how she feels about the watch flying into space, Kerwin described it as “kind of scary in a way and Amelia is such an icon with women in aviation and now with women in space. We are thrilled that Shannon is a Ninety-Nine and will be taking Amelia into space with her.”

Kerwin presented the watch to Walker at Ellington Field in Houston on Oct. 22.

H. Gordon Selfridge, Jr. gave Earhart a watch in one of his shops in America. In return, she gave him the watch she wore on her two trans Atlantic flights.

“Shortly after Amelia disappeared the watch was given (by H. Gordon Selfridge, Jr.) to Fay Gillis Wells, a charter member of The Ninety-Nines, and she kept it in her Washington, D.C., apartment until she founded the Forest of Friendship to honor other individuals in aviation. She needed funds for the Forest of Friendship in Amelia’s hometown of Atchison, Kan., so the watch was auctioned off,” said Kerwin, who bought the watch at the auction.

“She is a fascinating lady,” Walker said in regard to Earhart.

A licensed pilot since 1995, Walker learned to fly in a Cessna 150. Her grandmother served as an air traffic controller at William P. Hobby airport in Houston and had a private pilot’s license. Walker’s mother was also a pilot.

“One thing I really like about flying is that it is an activity that my mother and I can do together,” Walker said. “There is something quite special about getting into a plane with my mother and going somewhere.”

Walker said “it was something that I had wanted to do for a long time,” regarding her inspiration to become a pilot.

At age 30 Walker flew her first solo flight which was “the required short flight as part of pilot training.” Earhart was 24 years old when she flew her first solo flight in 1921.

Recognizing the significance of Earhart’s watch going into space with her, Walker says she is “very excited and honored to fly the watch” and hopes “that by flying the watch people will become interested in the continuing story of women in aviation, and perhaps draw some new pilots to the field.”

Walker shares some words of inspiration for women in aviation: “If you work hard, the things to which you aspire can happen. Flying gives me a tremendous sense of freedom and I hope that anyone who wishes to learn has the opportunity to do so.”

Along with the watch, another personal belonging of Earhart’s will soon fly into space. Astronaut Randy Bresnik, grandson of Earhart’s only authorized photographer, will take a scarf of Amelia’s with him aboard space shuttle Atlantis as part of STS-129, scheduled to launch in November 2009.

Once the watch comes back to Earth from being in orbit with Walker next year it will be put on display in The Ninety-Nines Museum of Women Pilots in Oklahoma City.

NASA App Now Available from App Store

The NASA App for the iPhone and iPod touch is now available free of charge on the Apple App Store. The NASA App delivers a wealth of NASA's mission information, videos, images and news updates to people's fingertips.

"Making NASA more accessible to the public is a high priority for the agency," said Gale Allen, director of Strategic Integration and Management for NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate in Washington. "Tools like this allow us to provide users easy access to NASA information and progress at a fast pace."

The NASA App collects, customizes and delivers an extensive selection of dynamically updated information, images and videos from various online NASA sources. Users can access NASA countdown clocks, the NASA Image of the Day, Astronomy Image of the Day, online videos, NASA's many Twitter feeds and other information in a convenient mobile package. It delivers NASA content in a clear and intuitive way by making full use of the iPhone and iPod touch features, including the Multi-Touch user interface. The New Media Team at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., developed the application.

The NASA App also allows users to track the current positions of the International Space Station and other spacecraft currently orbiting Earth in three views: a map with borders and labels, visible satellite imagery, or satellite overlaid with country borders and labels.

"We're excited to deliver a wide range of up-to-the-minute NASA content to iPhone and iPod touch users," said Gary Martin, director of the New Ventures and Communications Directorate at Ames. "The NASA App provides an easy and interesting way for the public to experience space exploration."

For more information about NASA's iPhone application, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/iphone

Bonekickers: The Eternal Fire

I'm about to head off on holiday for a few days, so I won't be able to post again till next weekend. In the meantime, I leave you with a very, very long post on Bonekickers - enjoy!

(By the way, if anyone is wondering why I continue to watch and review something I keep insisting is terrible, it's because I'm interested in the reception of Classics in popular culture, which means familiarising myself with all representations of Classics and archaeology, even the rubbish ones!)

We open, appropriately enough, with fire; two Roman soldiers watch as a hut burns. One of them stamps his standard into the ground dramatically. The obligatory scene-setting title says ‘England v Italy, Bath, AD 63’. It sounds like a football match. At least the AD is in the right place. The whole village is burning now, and we melt away.

Ah, it was actually supposed to sound like a football match. The next title card says ‘England v Italy, 1,945 years later’. This explains why they’re talking about ‘England’ when the country of ‘England’ wouldn’t exist for several centuries after the Romans left. The land conquered by the Romans was called Britannia (and covered most of modern England and Wales). England is named after the Anglo-Saxons who migrated/invaded/both (historians disagree) in the fifth century AD. And, of course, an uprising against an occupying Roman force ending in battle is exactly the same as a football match. Obviously.

(No comments about British football fans, thank you, I can hear what you’re thinking!)

The football match is taking place in Bath, for some reason. Do many international football matches happen in Bath? I’ve never noticed any! We pan up from some Italian football fans and a balloon seller selling Valentine’s Day balloons to the very swanky tea room and restaurant above the Roman baths, the Pump Room. I went to the Pump Room in 2006, when I lived in Bristol, and it cost over £25 for afternoon tea (with scones). I dread to think what it costs now. I paid 50p for a cup of spa water. It was completely disgusting, but apparently very healthy. The Pump Room suddenly starts shaking, and we see a little toy Roman soldier wobbling around, then cut to the credits.

The Pump Room - it's the room behind those posh windows!

After the credits, we get a fake news bulletin about the ‘natural disaster’ at the Roman baths, and the news anchor says the city has experienced its first earth tremor in 300 years. So there’s another new thing about Bath – apparently it’s also on a faultline! (Note for non-Brits – we don’t really have earthquakes in this country. We have very very mild tremors – there’ve been a couple in the Midlands in the last few years and one of them gave me quite a scare, as I woke up in the middle of the night and thought the house was falling down. They don’t generally do any actual damage though). There’s also been a release of toxic gas. ‘Dolly’ (hereafter known as NIJ, for Not-Indiana-Jones) informs Gillian (hereafter known as ‘Taggart’, the first programme I saw the actress, Julie Graham, in) that this is both ‘terrible and wonderful’.

Then we see Ben (known as Adrian or AL after the actor Adrian Lester, because he’s so attractive I’m too distracted to come up with a better nickname for him) delivering a stammering explanation of why he needs funding – if he was that rubbish at getting funding he’d never have got a job in a university archaeology department. Taggart comes to tell him they’re going underground.

They all meet up at the baths, including Viv (who I couldn’t come up with an amusing nickname for, as the character is dull and the actress is relatively unknown, though perfectly good. In fact, all the actors are pretty good, given what they’ve got to work with). Viv is feeling sick – I sense a plot point.

Taggart says there’s a hollow area under the baths which they haven’t been able to get at till now. AL says all they’ll find is more Roman remains, and sounds bored – I think he’s in the wrong job. Taggart insists there’ll be Celtic remains under there, and the two of them have had a bet on the subject.

They bump into a geologist who explains that hydrogen sulphide has been released and the whole thing is a death-trap. He’s very moody. Geologists are usually much more cheerful than that. Taggart drags them all down anyway as they all joke about the fact they might die. This is worse than their adventures on a fake island last week. Taggart says that the hollow area would have been the perfect place to hide someone in Roman times. The area is made of hand-hewed limestone, which they all conclude means it was Celtic. I don’t know if that’s accurate, though it sounds a bit too simple to me.

The Baths at Bath

Then we get a real heresy against Roman history. They all conclude that this means the baths were built over a Celtic religious site and NIJ grimly declares ‘Subjugate the people, eradicate their heritage, that’s the Romans’.

No, no, no, no, no, NO!

. Roman paganism was a pluralistic religion. They worshipped many gods and goddesses and it didn’t matter which ones or how many you worshipped as long as you sacrificed to the major state gods (Jupiter, Juno and so on). When the Romans conquered somewhere, they adopted the local gods and incorporated their worship as well, so Eastern gods like Isis, Mithras, Cybele and others gained temples all over the place, including in Rome. There were occasional clamp downs for political reasons – the Isis cult, for example, was legislated against a couple of times – but the only group who really presented a problem were Christians, because they refused to worship the state gods (who, as you probably know, were Greek in origin anyway – Jupiter=Zeus, Juno=Hera etc). (Jews were also tricky for their refusal to worship state gods, but since they didn’t proselytize the way Christians did, they weren’t so much of a threat). When the Roman conquered a new place, they adopted the local religion and subtly made it Roman – they didn’t ‘wipe out their heritage’ and stamp all over it.

In the case of Bath, the spring was sacred to a native goddess Sulis, who shared some qualities with the Roman goddess Minerva (equivalent to the Greek goddess Athena). Both Minerva and Sulis were associated with healing and Sulis was associated with the spring, so she was worshipped here as Sulis-Minerva and the town was called Aquae Sulis, ‘Waters of Sulis’. Here endeth the lesson.

The media ho (Daniel) reminds Taggart she’s supposed to be giving a talk that evening, but she whinges that they’re conducting an ad hoc investigation. I’m the with the media ho on this one – do your job woman! Which is getting funding for the university, not trying to kill all your staff on a dangerous dig!

The team find an inscription that says ‘Flamma urit semper’ ‘the fire will always burn’. Then they find some first century Celtic metal stuff (belt buckles etc) which Taggart insist is ‘a settlement’s worth of stuff’ (looks more like one lot of grave goods to me). They all mess around with a Celtic ring that was twisted in a fire (and, once again, it all looks cleaner than the Staffordshire Hoard did three months after excavation).

Taggart and NIJ explain that all they know about the baths comes from the Life of Marcus Quintanus, whose ‘servant’ (what? Slave or freedman, surely?) wrote about his life and about the building of the baths. This is pure fantasy. No such person exists and our written sources for Roman Britain are pathetically inadequate, mostly consisting of a few bits of Tacitus.

The details don’t matter really, since it’s all made up. The upshot of all this is that Taggart thinks that Boudicca was kept prisoner underneath the baths, having escaped along the Fosse way. NIJ adds yet another pointless comment about Viv’s breasts to this – how does this man still have a job? Only AL is skeptical of all this nonsense. (And I though Boudicca was buried under Platform 5 of King’s Cross Station anyway?!).

Taggart reckons the Roman soldier - the fictitious Quintanus, presumably – kept Boudicca as a sex slave, and the men start giggling at her emotion on the subject. Because rape is funny if it happened 2,000 years ago, it seems. (Note: that was sarcasm. I said it in my sarcastic voice). Taggart keeps telling AL to take a leap of faith – well that’s very scientific and academically rigorous of you. The team find a body and take the bones back for testing (apparently ‘Dolly gives good strontium’).

NIJ explains that Taggart’s mother was a media ho who ‘forsook academic enquiry for daydreaming’ and she lost credibility and had a breakdown. He is worried about Taggart, but interrupts it by describing how he likes to imagine what Viv looks like in the shower. Seriously, even Gene bl**dy Hunt wasn’t this bad.

Apparently the ‘servant’’s manscript (seriously, not many servants in ancient Rome. The word often translated as ‘servant’ in editions of the Bible actually means ‘slave’. Freedmen might be servants, but you would refer to them as freedmen) said the Quintanus was an atheist. Very unlikely. He might have been an Epicurean, a philosophical school that came pretty close to atheism, or a Christian, because not believing in the traditional gods could be said to constitute atheism, but an actual atheist is very, very unlikely. This does not mean there weren’t people who didn’t believe in the gods – there were, probably plenty of them. But they didn’t self-identify as atheists. Taggart is making up a nice little story about Boudicca now, based on no evidence whatsoever. AL keeps insisting that she’s acting crazy, since Quintanus would have paraded Boudicca through the streets if he had here. Then they have a lover’s tiff based on their past relationship. This involved AL implying that girls who like Queen are somehow weird. That’s him and me out the window then.

There’s another earth tremor and Taggart desides to crawl down a hole despite the obvious danger, so AL has to go in after her, and they get stuck. They find more inscriptions that say ‘Flamma urit semper’. AL observes, with understandable concern, that they are too deep for anyone to hear them, and Taggart gets all excited, thinking this supports her crazy theory.

NIJ gives a little talk on strontium to some visitors and the media ho reminds him that the other two are supposed to be at the thing that evening. The news is all about the gas leaking out and Viv thinks they ought to call the others, but NIJ says they’re fine.

This is not, in fact, the case, as AL is hit on the head by falling rubble. Taggart is still over-excited, causing him to mutter sarcastically ‘Wow, I’m gonna die looking at the rarest Egyptian porphyry I’ve ever seen’. He yells at Taggart for being an idiot (entirely justifiably) while NIJ investigates whether the strontium implies that the bones came from East Englia. It doesn’t – it shows signs of volcanic activity and comes, therefore, from a Roman (presumably from Pompeii). Viv reckons Boudicca killed Quintanus and the Life is wrong when it says he came back to Rome.

Taggart has found a mosaic she thinks depicts Boudicca. And more flaws in the crazy theory – Taggart claims that the Roman source we do have say that Boudicca killed herself at the battle because they wanted to give her ‘an ignominious end’. But Romans saw suicide as an honourable exit from a life in which there is no future, because you’ve done something wrong (maybe plotting against the Emperor, like Lucan), or the world has gone to pot around you (like Claudius’ mother Antonia) or the Emperor is a fruit basket and told you to (like Seneca or Petronius). There was nothing ignominous about suicide itself, though it couldn’t save your reputation from every disaster (Varus, for example, had gone too far, and even his suicide couldn’t redeem him). The point being, of the Romans had wanted to invent a dishonourable end for Boudicaa, suicide would not have been it.

An actual mosaic from Bath

NIJ is on a web call to an old girlfriend in Italy, and they discuss how Quintanus died in the Great Fire of Rome, which was ‘the Christians’ revenge’ for being burnt and tarred and so on by Nero – what??????? WHAT???????? Suetonius and Cassius Dio both blame Nero himself for the fire, and Tacitus says that when fingers started pointing at Nero, he blamed Christians to take the heat off himself. Some of them confessed, almost certainly under torture, and it was this that sparked the first major persecution of the Christians – it was not a result of it.

The Italian lady friend has a 17th century copy of the text that NIJ doesn’t seem to have heard of – my goodness, these are the worst archaeologists in history. They have apparently found Iceni coins in Rome, though she barely gets this out between flirting. They also establish that Quintanus went back to Rome and committed some kind of act of betrayal.

Back in the hole, Taggart has spontaneously burst into tears at the discovery of an image of Cupid (god/personification of Love) firing his arrow at Boudicca – implying that she wasn’t imprisoned down there, but having a consensual affair with Quintanus. Apparently this moves Taggart to tears. She won’t last long as an archaeologist if she wells up that easily – if a simple love story gets her going, how does she deal with all the bones and wars and so on? Naturally, she must then be comforted by her ex. He complains that a Roman and an Iceni makes no sense – maybe not during an uprising, but there was plenty of intermarriage otherwise.

Come to think of it, why is the mosaic on the wall anyway? Mosaics are for floor decoration mostly, except in the much later churches in Ravenna and elsewhere.

Luckily Taggart eventually finds a draught, just as they start suddenly breathing in gas. Taggart has to break the mosaic so they can get out. Meanwhile, someone calls for her at the university to ask if she’s received ‘the book’ (which appears to be sitting on the desk).

AL ascertains that they’re ‘OK’, presumably on the basis that they’re still conscious, as they wander into a new bit of ruin. They find a fossilized apple and a bunch of tiny jars which Taggart thinks might be a burial ritual, like Canopic jars. Yeah, except Canopic jars are ancient Egyptian and you generally have to be making a mummy to produce them. None of that in Roman Britain. AL suggests they go together, water in one, tar in the other. How he knows this, no one knows. Maybe he’s psychic. They decide that these are ‘Roman hand grenades’, used for torching the village. Uh-huh.

Then there’s an explosion. It is marginally more exciting than the rest of the show. They realise they’re standing in a ‘minefield’ of ‘grenades’. Oh, for heaven’s sake. The Romans did not have grenades or mines. This is getting too, too silly.

NIJ has found a palimpsest in the 17th century manuscript, written sideways across it. It talks about a hunt for Boudicca. Then there’s some more gratuitous religion-bashing. Or Roman-bashing. Maybe both.

AL bravely offers to walk across the minefield first and at this point I’d really quite like to stop watching this and watch Ice Cold in Alex instead. Taggart brings up some old issue from a Valentine’s Day incident when they were going out, 16 years previously. AL is not impressed, being as he’s trying to avoid getting blown up. Taggart has decided they’re going to die, so she’s decided to bring up the time she proposed to him and he said no. Apparently she mopes about it every year. Once they get out of the ‘minefield’, AL explains he said no because she’s too scary.

Taggart decides the ‘grenades’ were booby traps and they’re getting close to ‘something’. Back at the uni, NIJ is continuing his crusade against Roman history by saying something in the manuscript is ‘odd because this is mixing Roman gods with Celtic ones’. No it’s not odd, and any small gift that says Sulis-Minerva available in the Baths gift shop could tell you that’s perfectly normal. Then there’s some stuff about burning. They reckon, because what they have a good Latin, it can’t have been written by the ‘servant’. No, because if a slave was educated to read and write they would be taught good grammar. Then they decide Quintanus threw Iceni coins around Rome while it burned. They’re just making it up now.

NIJ and Viv go to get the others and find fire engines and geologists hanging around. NIJ flips out and starts shouting ‘mea culpa!’, presumably getting into the spirit of the Roman thing.

Meanwhile, AL and Taggart have found the body of Boudicca, which isn’t under King’s Cross Station after all. No, it’s been preserved (save your sanity, don’t ask how) under the baths, complete with the some graffiti in tar that says ‘Queen of the Britons’ (actually it doesn’t, it says Regina Britanica, which means ‘Queen of Britain’). AL pays Taggart what he owes from their bet. She then goes and mopes around the body for a bit. The graffiti continues with something written by Quintanus claiming her to be the rightful queen of Britain. (Actually I’m pretty sure she was just queen of the Iceni tribe, there was no unified country called Britain at this time).

NIJ works out how to find the others with some nonsense involving entrances, exits, Janus, Minerva and I don’t know what else. AL and Taggart speculate that Boudicca was discovered and killed, and there’s a flashback with some subtitled Latin, which is always fun. It involves Boudicca committing suicide after all, and Quintanus kills the man who found them.

There’s some excitement with drilling and water tables and the ‘grenades’ and everything ends up burned down, including Boudicca. NIJ jumps around in the baths claiming bureaucracy is overrated – but isn’t that kind of thinking how they got into this mess? NIJ finds some ancient trapdoor and finally rescues Taggart and AL.

Their escape involves this bit of the baths. I forget why.

NIJ declares that Boudicca won in the end because Quintanus set fire to Rome to avenge her and threw Iceni coins at Nero’s palace. Then AL reveals that they all used to call Taggart ‘Boudicca’ at uni and gives her a Valentine’s balloon, which she floats up into the air. AL then plans to give a speech all about archaeology as fairytale. Yeah, that’ll get you funding. He wonders if you can know what dreams they had – yes, if they carved inscriptions relating to temple incubation, you can. He goes on about the importance of imagination, instead of evidence. Great. So basically, we should just make it all up. This is an idea with some precedent – Livy and Plutarch certainly weren’t averse to making stuff up in their histories. Doesn’t get you far in modern archaeology though. Taggart opens the book, which says ‘we will call you’ and once belonged to her mother. Then she starts getting suspicious of Vivian, so paranoia is setting in, and apparently the fricking sword shape has turned up in the baths as well.

The next episode is about ancient Babylon and the Iraq war. More serious issues for the show to poke at ineffectually…