Time in Ancient Rome December 21, 2011
Posted by nellysiska in finance, history, science.Tags: asian girls, cute girls, girls, greek, roman, sundial, time, water clock
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Ancient Rome
Rome was a highly developed society that remained a distinct nation-state for more than 12 centuries. Throughout all that time, there was continual social and political evolution. In the beginning, Rome was ruled by kings. It developed into a republic with elected leaders and a senate and then became an autocratic empire ruled by a series of emperors.
In the earliest years, there was little interest in anything more than “local time”. Every city had its own calendar and its own way to reckon time. As Rome evolved into a more complex society and absorbed more neighboring cultures, elaborate calendars, astronomical knowledge, and historical record keeping developed.
At the same time, however, for centuries there was a lack of timekeeping to regulate the workday. Everything was measured relative to sunrise and sunset, and there was no division of time shorter than an hour.
Concept of Time
The era of kings and the early republic are the most poorly documented periods of Roman history. Historical writing by Romans did not occur until Rome had conquered all of Italy and Greece recognized Rome as a world power.
Rosetta Stone December 16, 2011
Posted by nellysiska in girls, history, science.Tags: byzantine emperor, Egyptian, emperor theodosius, hieroglyphs, historical, language scripts, Napoleon, Rosetta Stone
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Rosetta Stone
The Rosetta Stone is an artifact from the 2nd century BCE that was found in Egypt in 1799. It is a fragment of a carved stone decree. The message on the tablet is written in two Egyptian language scripts—Demotic and Hieroglyphic—as well as in Greek.
By studying the known Greek, 19th century scholars were eventually able to translate the mysterious hieroglyphs that had baffled their predecessors for centuries. With the translation of hieroglyphic script, the secrets of an ancient and powerful society could be read from firsthand historical accounts for the very first time.
The word stone is somewhat misleading; it evokes thoughts of a geological and not a cultural artifact. The object we see today is only a fragment of the original tablet that dates back to 196 BCE. Inscribed on the black granite stone is a decree of the Greek government, which ruled over Egypt at this time. Hieroglyphics were rare after the 4th century BCE but were still used for some religious and governmental purposes.
This is why the decree on the stone is written in three different languages: hieroglyphs, because it was a government document; Demotic, which was the common language of the Egyptian people at the time; and Greek, the language of the foreign government. It is believed that such stones would have been placed outside of temples for public viewing.
Saltationism and Gradualism December 14, 2011
Posted by nellysiska in girls, science.Tags: genetic makeup, neo darwinism, organic evolution, process of speciation, slow accumulation, thomas henry huxley
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Saltationism and Gradualism
In the explanation for the origin of new life forms throughout organic evolution, the temporal framework is very important. Two major positions have been offered to account for the process of speciation. Darwinism maintained that the emergence of a new species occurs slowly over a vast period of time in terms of slight variations and natural selection; as such, biological gradualism supplements geological gradualism in natural history.
This interpretation upheld the continuity of organic evolution. In the 20th century, neo-Darwinism also supported biological gradualism, claiming that the process of speciation results from the slow accumulation of favorable minor changes in the genetic makeup of an organism.
Over time, these positive slight alterations enhanced the adaptation, survival, and reproduction of a species in a changing environment. In sharp contrast, most sudden major mutations in genetic makeup are usually harmful to an organism and result in its sterility or death. If no members of a population can adapt to changes in the environment, then the population becomes extinct.
Because biological evolution has been occurring for about 4 billion years, it is generally held that there has been sufficient time for organic history to account for the staggering creativity of life forms in terms of biological gradualism. Nevertheless, the fossil record attests to the fact that most of the species that have ever existed on the earth slowly or suddenly became extinct.
Salvation December 8, 2011
Posted by nellysiska in girls, science.Tags: believe, religion, salvation, spiritual
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Salvation
Salvation comes from the Latin salus, which means “sound, safe”. The study of salvation is called soteriology. Salvation in a religious sense indicates an ultimate safety. Initially a person is in a state of spiritual danger, which indicates a future (or also present) punishment in some form; therefore the significance of salvation changes over time.
Through the intervention of a deity or spiritual awareness, the individual is removed from spiritual danger and receives a spiritual reward. This turn from danger and punishment to safety and reward is salvation. Note that the word salvation has European roots (Latin) and therefore is foremost a Christian concept.
Most religions teach that nonpractitioners face danger and punishment, whereas adherents receive safety and reward. That similarity is expressed in a variety of methods depending on the religion. The word salvation is found almost solely within Christianity, yet the idea of turning from spiritual punishment to spiritual safety runs constant in all religions.
For this reason, the concept of salvation has been used to describe other religious belief systems. Christianity makes the strongest use of the idea of salvation. Christianity focuses on Jesus Christ, whom Christians believe to be both a physical man and God incarnate. Christian salvation teaches that an individual needs to accept Jesus Christ as coming from God and follow Jesus’s teachings in order to receive salvation.
The Sandman December 6, 2011
Posted by nellysiska in girls, science.Tags: e t a hoffmann, god of sleep, hans christian andersen, oxford english dictionary, sandman, sleep, story
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The Sandman
The Sandman is a mythological character, which, at least from the 17th century on, has associated with time, especially the time for children to go to bed. A parallel can be drawn from the Sandman to Hypnos, the god of sleep. Hypnos’s mother is Nyx, the goddess of night; his twin brother is Thanatos, the god of death. As the donor of sleep, Hypnos has power over gods and humans.
In Homer’s Iliad Hypnos usually appears in human shape, but to hide from Zeus, Hypnos disguises himself as the bird of the night. Hypnos can make people fall asleep with his pure appearance, but he sometimes uses the noise of his wings or juices out of a horn to put people to sleep.
The oldest known source of the Sandman is from Sweden. In 1691, a Sandman-like figure, called Jon Blund, was mentioned there. The Oxford English Dictionary contains an entry on the Sandman from 1772: “sandman noun (the sandman) [sing.] an imaginary man who is said to make children fall asleep.” A German dictionary entry from 1777 describes the Sandman in two versions: First, it is a man transporting and selling sand.
Second, in fun, parents say to their children that the Sandman is coming when they become tired and rub their eyes, as if one had put sand into them. This explanation refers to another root of the Sandman history, the Sandmen and Sandwomen, who lived in the German Vogtland. The sand they prospected was used as scouring powder for cleaning.
Sandpainting December 5, 2011
Posted by nellysiska in girls, science, travel, woman.Tags: budha, cosmic, cultures, sandpainting
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Sandpainting
Sandpainting (also referred to as “drypainting”) remains a significant and well-known feature of religious ceremonies in a number of cultures, especially among Native Americans in the U.S. Southwest, Tibetan Buddhists, and Australian Aborigines. These colorful, symbolic images serve different functions in different parts of the world but also share some common features.
As the name sandpainting implies, the artists and religious functionaries generally work with simple materials, but their work involves intricate patterns that follow age-old designs. Because sandpaintings depict meaning on a supernatural or cosmic level, they provide insight into ways by which various peoples view time and eternity, key intellectual and spiritual frames of reference in all cultures.
Although sandpaintings are more important for their original roles in ritualistic contexts, connoisseurs and collectors also recognize the aesthetic qualities of sandpaintings, which have acquired commercial value in some regions. As a result, the religious origins of these ancient artistic traditions have become better known, at least on a rudimentary level.
Although practiced among the Pueblos and other indigenous peoples of the American Southwest and Great Plains, sandpainting has assumed its highest profile in the Navajo traditional religious system. The Navajos use sandpaintings while performing ceremonies to invoke blessings from the supernatural world (e.g., rain, crops, health) and also in their famous curing ceremonies.
Shri Adi Sankara December 4, 2011
Posted by nellysiska in girls, history, science.Tags: asian girls, cute girls, india, philosopher, philosopy
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Shri Adi Sankara
Shri Adi Sankara was a philosopher-theologian of the Advaita Vedanta (nondual) school of Indian thought. His dates are disputed, although he probably lived and worked in the early 8th century. Besides his distinguished career as an influential thinker, he played several roles: Hindu reformer, founder of monastic centers, commentator on ancient texts, and author of original works of philosophy.
Medieval Indian culture recognized two types of time: linear historical time, often associated with dynastic rule, and cyclic cosmic time, which was depicted as four yugas (ages) of descending longevity. In the ancient Atharva Veda text (19.53–54), time is identified with the deity Prajapati.
According to the Maitri Upanishad (6.14–16), the sun, a source and support for all living things, is also identified with Brahman, and time is, by extension, identified with Brahman, or the highest reality. In the cosmic level, time is a power that brings about the evolution and involution of the entire universe.
Time is depicted in the Upanishads as cyclical, with an inconceivable beginning and end. Being described as all-inclusive and rolling on endlessly, time is conceived commonly as a destructive force. Time is, for instance, compared with the six seasons, which swallow up creatures, or cook all creatures, according to the Maitri Upanishad (6.15), making them ripe enough to be swallowed by death.
George Santayana December 4, 2011
Posted by nellysiska in girls, history, science.Tags: american, philosopher, philosophy
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Philosopher poet
Philosopher, poet, novelist, and critic Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana was born on December 16, 1863, in Madrid to Spanish parents and was brought to Boston at the age of 9 and educated at the Boston Latin School. He studied at Harvard University under William James and the idealist philosopher Josiah Royce. His academic career was also at Harvard, where he was a professor of philosophy.
But he became progressively more estranged from American life and, once he could afford to do so in 1912, he left the United States and migrated to Europe. In 1924 he settled in Rome, where he remained for the rest of his life, dying there on September 26, 1952.
Santayana is best remembered for two works: The Life of Reason (five volumes, 1905–1906), which is deeply imbued with the ideals of the naturalism and humanism of ancient Greece, and his novel The Last Puritan (1936), a study of New England attitudes and values. Other important books he wrote include Skepticism and Animal Faith (1923), wherein he revised some of the ideas expressed in The Life of Reason and refined others.
During World War I, he expressed support for critical realism, contributing to an important collective work called Essays in Critical Realism (1920). A feature of Santayana’s work is his extraordinary fluency with prose writing. He has been described as the finest writer of philosophy since Plato.
Satan and Time December 1, 2011
Posted by nellysiska in girls, history, science.Tags: devil, evil, hell, ibis, satan, time
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Satan and Time
The term Satan comes from the Abrahamic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, those derived from Semitic origins and traced back to the patriarch Abraham. Satan is often represented as an angel, minor god, or the Devil himself. Modern Christianity commonly conflates Satan with Lucifer and Beelzebub, among other malicious beings. In these traditions, Satan represents a force of evil within humanity.
Satan is a figure often designated by an assortment of aliases and roles. He has been called, variously, the Prince of Darkness, the Devil, the Accuser, the Prince of Hell, the Evil One, the Tempter, the Wicked One, Old Nick, Old Harry, the Dragon, the Fallen One, and Mr.
Scratch and has been identified as the Ruler of Hell, Hades, the Lake of Fire, the Inferno, Styx, the Everlasting Fire, and the Realm of Pluto. These roles and names reflect the incorporation of demonic figures from several ancient religious and belief systems.
Islam’s main devil figure, or Shaitan (Satan is the English equivalent), is Ibis, who was created out of smokeless fire by Allah (God). After the creation of humankind, Ibis was expelled from the graces of God to Jahannam, or hell, due to his self-pride and jealousy.
