Killarney: If history is boring to young people, then this is probably because: 1. most young people belong to the non-warrior, non-gentry classes, 2. most young people grow up in homes where the breadwinner(s) work in humble jobs for humble wages, and 3. half of all people are women.

Gawd, Killarney, you are such a Grumble Bum. You must have life intolerable for yourself to have such a bad attitude about life. None of us have ever had it easy but we have made good with what we have got & been thankful for it.

Remember, "Life wasn't meant to be easy, but with a little hard work & a positive attitude it can be tolerable." Above all, remember to smile & say "Hello" to everybody you meet even if you don't like them. Try to have a good day. ;-)

Giday Killarney

As a serious scholar of history I follow the non-humble with panache.

I find Angeline Jolie, Jesus Christ, Batman and Lara Bingle particularly illuminating.

Poyda

Hi Poyda,

You forgot the Kardashians. Why are they so important in historical terms ?

Joe

The KK bum has just gone parasailing. Sun eclipse to be reported.

http://tinyurl.com/o5jj5va

For the conspiracy aficionados, Batman and Batgirl both carked it:

http://tinyurl.com/batman-demise

http://tinyurl.com/batgirlfinallystuffed

Hi Joe and onthebeach

As a notable historian and sage I know not of Kardashians de la Bubblebutts ( http://tinyurl.com/o5jj5va ).

But as a serious student of the Madonna I appreciate she Was like a virgin ("Touched for the Very First Time") rather than suspiciously claiming miraculous Virgin Birth.

Poyda

Hi Poyd,

Interesting, your comment about the Madonna - I was just yarning to a friend about how easily complete inconsistencies in the Bible were tolerated back in the days when it was unthinkable to analyse or criticise anything in the Bible, hence every translation carried forward glaring contradictions, no trouble. And how these could give endless hours of fun.

For example, in Exodus, two origin stories are recounted in the same chapter, one in which the Earth was all water from which the land arose, the other the other way around. Obviously it's a composite construction, with bits from Egypt, from Mesopotamia, and perhaps even from India. Clearly, bits and pieces have been brought together by traders bringing stories back.

In relation to Mary: the ancestry of Jesus is usually traced back to David, to Noah, to Adam, etc., but through Joseph, who wasn't his father. So what was Mary's ancestry, if she existed ? Nobody seems to care. Was she the multi-breasted eastern Mediterranean sea-goddess, incorporated later into a Christian 'history', in order to make early Christianity more popular amongst people of the eastern Mediterranean, mainly Asia Minor ?

Frankly, I'm more interested in the economic and social history of the world, from the time of the agricultural revolution, 10-12,000 years ago - in particular, the role of Austronesian traders and seafarers from South-East Asia, through the Pacific Islands and west to Madagascar and the east 'Coromandel' coast of India.

Here's a puzzle: Rome used plenty of sandalwood, which can only be grown in parts of South-East Asia, Timor, etc., and - wait for it ! - Australia. Was Australian sandalwood traded two thousand years ago, by Austronesian ships, to eastern India, to be taken from there by Nabatean (e.g. Petra) traders around to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean, and on to Rome ? Gold was mined then in what is now Malaysia (they called it 'Chersonese'), and traded to Rome. So why not sandalwood ? And could some of it have come from Australia ? If only they could find a Roman figurine in Kakadu ......