More ancient Roman ruins. Check out the sculptures from the Villa of the Papyri.
 

We wrote a computer program to allow us to display photographs on screen and to identify facial landmarks on images. We then conducted statistical analyses on the resulting data to determine whether craniofacial anthropometry was of value in differentiating portraits of a few prominent Julio-Claudians.
 

Hadrian's Villa and Ostia Antica are both large, ancient Roman ruins. These galleries contain about 200 photos, most having at least identification of the subject.
 

The focus of these photos is early Christian art in Rome that can be correlated with scriptural texts (whether canonical or not). About one fourth of such scenes depict acts that would be immediately identified by ancient viewers as magic. Jesus is the most common figure on the sarcophagi (~ 50% of scenes), and often performs miracles or acts of magic. Jesus almost always uses a wand in conjunction with multiplication of loaves (the most common scene on sarcophagi), the miracle at Cana, raising Lazarus, and raising the son of the widow. He never uses a wand in conjunction with healing live people.

The only other New Testament miracle worker to appear on sarcophagi is Peter, the second most common figure on the sarcophagi, whose wand, unlike Jesus', may also signify a staff of authority. Peter only uses a wand in conjunction with his non-canonical water miracle (the second most common scene on the sarcophagi), which Christian tradition places in Rome. We speculate that Peter's prominence in sarcophagus imagery and the prominence of his wand are related to desire of the early Roman church to establish apostolic succession. The claim of apostolic succession was perhaps strengthened by sending a visual message to viewers of Christian sarcophagi that Peter had been active in Rome.

The number of sarcophagus scenes associated with events that appear only in "heretical" writings is surprisingly large. We also look at images where details disagree with those given by scriptures.

This posting is a major revision of a draft posted on Aug. 8.
 

Everyone's favorite killer. A large collection of photos of portraits of the Roman emperor Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known today as Caligula. Many modern viewers see megalomanic attributes in these images of Caligula. That an imperial sculptor intended anything of this sort is highly unlikely. Reading the negative character judgments into Caligula's portraits is little more than the physiognomical pseudo-science employed by ancient writers. That the negative accounts of ancient writers fit squarely into the style of condemnation assigned to emperors deemed "bad" by their successors should cast serious doubt on the veracity of these accounts. There is unfortunately no valid means of extracting a core of historical truth from the sensational journalism of ancient biographers, most of whom were political enemies of their subject. Fictional accounts by Robert Graves (I Claudius) and Bob Guccione (Caligula, 1979) are further embellishments of unreliable (and non-contemporaneous) ancient tabloid material. See Caligula's official portraits for yourself, to see if you can catch a glimpse of  the man within the marble.

A large collection of photos of portraits of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius, known today as Caracalla. The unknown sculptor responsible for most of these images, often dubbed "the Caracalla master" developed a style that was imitated by those creating portraits of many subsequent emperors. To the visually illiterate, i.e., modern viewers, the portraits reveal a cruel and almost deranged ruler. The portraits have no doubt contributed to modern - and perhaps even ancient (e.g. the Historia Augusta - part history, part fiction) - biographies that paint Caracalla as the epitome of the Roman barbarism that would be cured (ahem) by the later introduction of Christianity. Caracalla's political record is, however, not consistent with this reputation. Caracalla, with all his executions, killed fewer family members than Constantine the Great. The scowl and suspicious glance worn by Caracalla in these images was, among other things, a nod to the army, who had put his father, Septimius Severus, on the throne and kept him there for two decades, and a show of military strength from Caracalla, who became commander in chief at a relatively young age after Severus's death. Regardless of your assessment of Caracalla - whose image warrants considerable rehabilitation in my opinion - you cannot deny the mastery of his sculptor.
 

Shots from the Friday practice air show taken from Aquatic Park in San Francisco. Featuring the A380, the F-16/P-51 Heritage demo, the Patriots, Fat Albert (C-130) and the Blue Angels flying F-18s.
 

The Airbus A380 arriving for its inaugural touchdown at San Francisco International Airport. Also the Blue Angels' arrival for Fleet Week.
 

New photos residents of the aquarium.
 

Photos from Sep. 9, in and around the dahlia garden.
 

Here is a group of photos by Diana Gietl and me from the Old Timers Reunion in Elkins, West Virginia. I've included some technical notes on lighting technique using flashbulbs.

Recent studio shots of models and a few infants, mostly with very high key or very low key lighting. Oh - and don't forget the fog machine.
 

Recent photos, mostly of the arboretum, done with a Canon 5D digital SLR and a Canon 100mm macro lens.
 

Some miscellaneous shots of San Francisco fog, Chinatown, Barry Bonds, boats on the bay and Golden Gate Park.
 

I rarely get a chance to show finished work product, since most of what I work on has no public visuals. This MLB video contest site went from artwork to production in three weeks. My role was architect/project manager. It demonstrates some great creative work by Questus in San Francisco, and sophisticated Flash development by Martin Kornblum's team at TrueLogic. Its real heroes were Dennis Lee and Owen Nishimura, who thought on their feet for three weeks of 14-hour days. "You're a fan. Act like one..."
 

These are two of Rome's oldest churches, both containing some great sarcophagi and grave slabs. San Lorenzo dates from the 7th century. Sant' Agnese appears to be able to claim Constantinian era origins. It contains a grave slab fragment that can solidly be dated to 323-324 AD.
 

The Villa of Poppea , built during the 1st century B.C. was buried by the eruption of Vesuvius. An inscription on an amphora revealed that its owner was Poppaea Sabina, second wife of emperor Nero. The villa was not occupied during the eruption, apparently having been undergoing repairs from an earthquake at the time. Its oecus (reception room) contains a large wall painting in late Pompeian 2nd Style that demonstrates ancient use of vanishing-point perspective and false architectural space. The painting - Sanctuary of Apollo - includes a multi-story colonnade, a theater mask, and a peacock standing on a ledge. Also shown are photos of a bedroom and a large atrium, also similarly painted. More photos of Oplontis to follow.
 

Check out the plants, bugs and birds.
 

I updated some of the Constantinians and added portraits of Emperor Constans and Aelia Flaccilla, wife of Theodosius I.
 

Wishing all Christians a happy celebration of the resurrection of Christ, and all Babylonians a happy Ishtar (pronounced east·ər), feast of the resurrection of Tammuz (who liked rabbits), the only begotten son of the moon-goddess (who descended from heaven in an egg) and the sun-god. Worshipers of Tammuz began celebrations by making the sign of the "T" on their chests, and ate sacred cakes marked on the top with a "T". They ate no meat for forty days prior to his annual resurrection, and then feasted on a pig (ham). Hot cross buns and ham; count me in...
 

In the early 1700s, Francesco Bianchini, a librarian-turned-astronomer, got the job of constructing a
giant solar observatory/clock inside a church. Given the experience of Galileo, this may seem to be a
strange allegiance between church and cosmology. But science was on the verge of a discovery that the
church desparately wanted - an accurate calendar.
 

The Arch of the Argentarii, or Porta Argentarorium, in Rome's Forum Boarium is another great example of Roman propaganda and damnatio memoriae. Photos show the obliteration of images of Caracalla's brother, wife, and father-in-law - Geta, Plautilla, and Plautianus.
 

Catching the Chronicle writers publishing some bad math may hardly seem noteworthy to anyone with a smidgen of knowledge of statistics, but the article in question (Police Fail to Report Traffic Stop Data, Mar. 7 2006) is connected with a much larger and more interesting issue of bad math in the analysis of racism in America. A look at the larger issue reveals that bad math in journalism is not merely the consequence of what conservatives might see as the typical fuzzy-thinking product of a Berkeley liberal arts education. Bad math in print extends beyond ideologies, education and party lines.
 

"Greenspan Rocks Markets" reported the Washington Post today. In a matter of hours, they reported, his warning of a possible 2007 recession "wreaked havoc on global share prices." The Chinese stock market lost 9 percent from record highs and the Dow had its worst day in years.

I'm not mad at Greenspan for causing stocks to fall. Many analysts say a correction was lurking. Perhaps if Greenspan had remained silent a worse fall would have occurred soon, resulting from a butterfly flapping its wings in Australia. But I am mad at Greenspan for being clueless or arrogant enough to publicly offer half-thought or flippant remarks with apparent disregard for their likely outcome. He has a long history of giving opinions and predictions, and a lot of investors hang on every word of them.

His predictions have not been particularly accurate, despite their capacity to be self-fulfilling. In 1996 he warned that the market was overvalued. A broad portfolio of 1996 purchases in fact still looked pretty good in the post-collapse gloom of 2003. Greenspan supported Gerald Ford's ridiculous WIN (Whip Inflation Now) campaign, memorable only for its parodies, including wearing the WIN button upside down to denote NIM - No Immediate Miracles. In the '90s he had a streak of predictions after the fact coupled with prescribing treatments that either masked the symptoms or resulted in a dubious cure, something he called liquidity, but that felt oddly like inflation.

Criticizing Greenspan seems to now be in vogue. Liberals criticize him for his laissez-faire/Ayn Rand capitalism. Conservatives accuse him of offering lip service to laissez-faire pragmatism while constantly meddling in the minutiae of money. But enough bashing. My point isn't really to condemn his deeds but his words, particularly those issued while he is off duty. I'm reminded of the Catholic Church's claim that it didn't really call for the brutal witch hunts since Pope Innocent VIII's endorsement of "The Hammer of Witches" was made while he was off duty.

It's hard to believe that a man who thinks he can predict economies cannot predict the outcome of his words upon them. More likely, I'm afraid, he is simply too fond of the sounds of his own voice, reveling equally in their reverberations, whether like a bell, a bear or a bull.

Alan - instead of lip-service to a hands-off policy, how about considering a lips-off policy. Enjoy the prestige of having been the most powerful person in the economic world for two decades and show us what a wise sage you can be by keeping your big mouth shut.
 

This is an exploration of a mathematical concept called Lyapunov Space, which is closely related to fractals, including my fifteen year history of programming the generation of Lyapunov space plots. Even if you have no interest at all in math or computers (you're using one right now, by the way), check out the graphics.
 

I've posted a lot more photos of imperial portraits, including most of the Julio-Claudians. This is by far the most extensive collection of Roman imperial portraits I've seen on the web. The images are large. Take your time. My favorites: Marcus Agrippa, Octavia, Livia as orant, Julia Titi (check the one from the Getty Museum), Antinous, the equestrian Marcus Aurelius, and Commodus as Hercules. There are now hundreds of photos representing 80 different imperial personages. These are from over 6000 pictures of Roman sculpture (most portraits are of unknown Romans) we've taken in the last five years. More to come soon.
 

Photos of San Francisco's vintage fleet of streetcars (trolleys) and cable cars. Many of these shots appeared in the calendars of the Market Street Railway. MSR is the nonprofit organization that restores and maintains the vintage fleet. They are not really connected with the losers who mismanage SF Muni, other than once MSR gets one of the cars restored, they turn it over to Muni for operation by their world-owes-me-a-living operators, who have totaled several of the vintage cars over the past few years. Might alcohol possibly be a factor? Nah.

While I'm ranting on Muni - ever try getting a train from Embarcadero to the CalTrain depot on a Saturday evening (or any other non-rush-hour time)? Muni claims an average interval of 15 minutes for this route. It is possible that this is true in a dishonest-statistics sense. After no trains for 30-40 minutes, three trains invariably follow at one-minute intervals. This is not a mere anecdote. It seems to be the case every time. Muni didn't get their worst-of-breed reputation for nothing. For more fun tales of SF Muni, see The N Judah Chronicles.
 

Discussion of the identification of a portrait bust of the child emperor, Diadumenian. Also new postings for Probus, Claudia Octavia, Gordian I, Clodius Albinus, Nerva and Honorius.
 

A handful of shots of flora in the Conservatory
 

Some flower photos done with the new Canon 70-200mm f/4 IS lens.
 

These are a few photos of some neat homes we've visited. Check out the bathtub setting.
 

This is a detailed description (~10,000 words) with 70 photos. An analysis of ancient biographies, all of which have strong religious (pagan or Christian) agendas, reveals a man who, despite violent impulses, frequent reversals and self-contradictions, managed to promote commerce, maintain Rome's military and its borders, and restore a sense of unity in the wake of long years of internal conflict. Constantine also sought to convert the empire to Christianity - a quest that profoundly influenced the course of human history.
 

(Updated text, incorporating comments from reviewers) I like ancient Christian art, and am particularly interested in depictions of narrative details that refer to apocryphal and heretical Christian texts. In the early 20th century the wooden door panels at Santa Sabina in Rome were analyzed by several scholars who did not agree about their origins, dates, and messages. One of the panels is often held to be the oldest known depiction of Jesus on a cross, but this claim is a bit cheeky; it is not exactly the crucifixion scene that believers are familiar with. Laura Maish and I recently went for a first-hand look, and took some detailed photos. In this article I summarize the views of previous writers, note their major differences of interpretation, and offer some new ideas about the messages intended by the artist(s) who carved the panels.
 

Laura provides some travel tips for visiting Naples, Italy and archaeological sites at Pompeii, Herculanum, Stabiae and Oplontis. She explains how to use the ArteCard to make getting around this ancient city and into the sites even easier than wrestling a minotaur.
 

Here are a few shots from a spontaneous photo session that, according to the EXIF data recorded in the digital photos, lasted precisely fifteen seconds.
 

I shoot a lot of photos at night, partially because I work during the day, but also just because I like the effect. These are some recent pictures at night from places that I can get to on rollerblades. Yes, carrying a sturdy tripod while rollerblading takes a bit of practice.
 

Friends visiting from out of town wanted to get some good photos of the Golden Gate Bridge, so I offered to go with them down the steep trail to the north end of Baker Beach. Here are some twilight and night shots from that trip made with a Canon 5D digital SLR camera.
 

The air show is a great place to play with long lenses and fast shutter speeds.
 

New photos added: Agrippina the Younger, Caligula, Carinus, Claudius.
 

These are a few night shots of architecture from a recent trip to Rome.