fulltimestudent

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Posts by fulltimestudent

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  Jesus: DEMI-GOD? In a pagan Roman Empire, it was only natural!

  by Terry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  when you and i were born we started absorbing the beliefs and culture surrounding us.

  (the word for this is: ethos.).

  as we grew older we absorbed the beliefs and cultures we experienced among our friends.

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  fulltimestudent

  Generally, a very useful perspective from which to view the changing concepts of the Jesus that most Christians of the mid first century had never seen.
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  An 1800 year old letter home from a soldier on active duty

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  sorry, i've stuffed this up, will re-post..

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  fulltimestudent

  Interesting, isn't it, to note the soldier's very human concerns. Other interesting points are the evidence of the reliability of courier services, and the confirmation, that Greek was the common language in the Egypt of that time.

  Ancient Egyptian Soldier's Letter Home Deciphered

  By Owen Jarus, Live Science Contributor | March 05, 2014 10:18pm ET

  A newly deciphered letter home dating back around 1,800 years reveals the pleas of a young Egyptian soldier named Aurelius Polion who was serving, probably as a volunteer, in a Roman legion in Europe.

  In the letter, written mainly in Greek, Polion tells his family that he is desperate to hear from them and that he is going to request leave to make the long journey home to see them.

  Addressed to his mother (a bread seller), sister and brother, part of it reads: "I pray that you are in good health night and day, and I always make obeisance before all the gods on your behalf. I do not cease writing to you, but you do not have me in mind," it reads. [In Photos: Gladiators of the Roman Empire]

  "I am worried about you because although you received letters from me often, you never wrote back to me so that I may know how you ..." (Part of the letter hasn't survived.)

  The back of the letter contains instructions for the carrier to deliver it to a military veteran whose name may have been Acutius Leon who could forward it to Polion's family. Although the Roman Empire had a military postal system, Polion appears not to have used it, entrusting the veteran instead.
  Credit: Image courtesy Bancroft Library at the University of California Berkeley View full size image

  Polion says he has written six letters to his family without response, suggesting some sort of family tensions.

  "While away in Pannonia I sent (letters) to you, but you treat me so as a stranger," he writes. "I shall obtain leave from the consular (commander), and I shall come to you so that you may know that I am your brother …"

  Found in an ancient Egyptian town

  The letter was found outside a temple in the Egyptian town of Tebtunis more than a century ago by an archaeological expedition led by Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt. They found numerous papyri in the town and did not have time to translate all of them.

  Recently Grant Adamson, a doctoral candidate at Rice University, took up the task of translating the papyrus, using infrared images of it, a technology that makes part of the text more legible. His translation was published recently in the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists.

  Adamson isn't sure if the soldier's family responded to his pleas, or if Polion got leave to see them (it's unlikely), but it appears this letter did arrive home.

  "I tend to think so. The letter was addressed to and mentions Egyptians, and it was found outside the temple of the Roman-period town of Tebtunis in the Fayyum not far from the Nile River," Adamson wrote in an email to Live Science.

  Polion, who lived at a time when the Roman Empire controlled Egypt, was part of the legio II Adiutrix legion stationed in Pannonia Inferior (around modern-day Hungary)

  He may have volunteered for the pay and food legions got. However, that doesn't mean Polion knew that he was going to be posted so far away from home.

  "He may have volunteered and left Egypt without knowing where he would be assigned," writes Adamson in the journal article. According to the translation, Polion sent the letter to a military veteran who could forward it to his family.

  A recently deciphered papyrus revealing a soldier's letter home was found at Tebtunis, an ancient town in Egypt. It was discovered along with many other papyri over a century ago by archaeologists Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, but had not been translated until now. This image shows remains of the ancient settlement of Tebtunis as it appeared in 2003.
  Credit: Photo by Roland Unger, CC Attribution Share-Alike 1.0 Generic, courtesy Wikimedia View full size image

  An ancient soldier, a modern problem

  The situation seen in this letter, a young man serving as a volunteer in a military unit far away from home, facing tensions with his family and seeking leave to see them sounds like something that happens in modern-day armed forces.

  Although soldiers today have an easier time communicating and traveling back home (Polion would have had to travel for a month or more to reach Tebtunis from his posting in Europe), there are some themes that connect both ancient and modern soldiers, Adamson said.

  "I think that some aspects of military service belong to a common experience across ancient and modern civilizations — part of our human experience in general really. Things like worry and homesickness."

  The letter is now in the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.

  Editor's Note: This article was updated to change the term "legionnaire" to "legion," as the former is not as popularly used to refer to Roman legionaries.
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  An 1800 year old letter home from a soldier on active duty

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  sorry, i've stuffed this up, will re-post..

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  fulltimestudent

  Some 1800 years ago, a young Egyptian soldier serving in a Roman legion in modern Hungary, had written six letters home and had no replies. The letter was find with other documents abotu one hundred years ago, but has only recently been translated. Its written in Greek, which was the usual language in Egypt of that time.

  It looks like this:

  

  Reference: http://www.livescience.com/43900-ancient-egyptian-soldier-letter-deciphered.html
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  An 1800 year old letter home from a soldier on active duty

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  sorry, i've stuffed this up, will re-post..

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  fulltimestudent

  Sorry, I've stuffed this up, will re-post.
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  10

  China's Dying Villages and the Problem of Land Use

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  the chinese newspaper, the people's daily (english, web, edition) has images of a dying 800 year old village, that illustrates some trends and problems in modern china.

  it is not typical of all the problems causing urbanisation in china, but does illustrate some.. the village is dacan ancient village, located in yuxian, in north china's shanxi province.

  it is surrounded by mountains.

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  fulltimestudent

  I agree, problemaddict. The question has to be asked, are they worth saving. The city government of Beijing is often criticised because it has torn down lots of hutongs, that many westerners, living in China, think should be preserved.

  I've walked through some parts - and out of fellow feeling for those who lived there I could not take my camera out to photograph. Dilapidated, not water, no sewerage, what's the point to preserve it. (Note: the better classed stuff is being preserved)
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  A Better World - Can it be achieved?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  the hope of a better world is what attracted me (and likely many of you other loiterers (grin) on this site) into the mental mindtrap of christian thought.

  i guess its understandable, re-reading the words that the author of the matthew gospel that we know as the sermon on the mount, its easy to think, that if jesus ruled the world, everything would be ok.. i'm still interested in a better world.

  so have many other thinkers (and revolutionaries).

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  fulltimestudent

  In my local supermarket, solar powered garden lights can be bought for $2. I've got no idea how long they'd last, but jeeez, I can't even buy a cup of coffee anymore for two bucks (not even at maccas).

  So look at the potential in this lot:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd2mt64zi7k#aid=P9Ozwms3thY

  You could make something like that to light rooms in a house. Stick it out in the sunshine every day, bring it in at night to light the rooms. Kids can now do their homework at night.
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  16

  A Better World - Can it be achieved?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  the hope of a better world is what attracted me (and likely many of you other loiterers (grin) on this site) into the mental mindtrap of christian thought.

  i guess its understandable, re-reading the words that the author of the matthew gospel that we know as the sermon on the mount, its easy to think, that if jesus ruled the world, everything would be ok.. i'm still interested in a better world.

  so have many other thinkers (and revolutionaries).

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  fulltimestudent

  Apognophos:

  Wouldn't extended lifespans be throwing fuel on the fire of overpopulation?

  Yes! it could.

  But in defence I point out that the best birth control method is prosperity. People with no money do use sex as recreation, and without access to birth control it results in, kids. It costs nothing to feel nice for a couple of hours.

  In fact, prosperity (to an extent) has overwhelmed procreation in Japan. On present trends, the population will halve by the year 2100.

  In first world countries, birthrates sag also. In Russia (and the Ukraine) birthrates are down,- for likely different reasons.

  China forced their birthrate down, but increasing prosperity seems to have decreased the desire to procreate in China also.

  So maybe longer lives and more prosperity give people an alternative to kids.
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  16

  A Better World - Can it be achieved?

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  the hope of a better world is what attracted me (and likely many of you other loiterers (grin) on this site) into the mental mindtrap of christian thought.

  i guess its understandable, re-reading the words that the author of the matthew gospel that we know as the sermon on the mount, its easy to think, that if jesus ruled the world, everything would be ok.. i'm still interested in a better world.

  so have many other thinkers (and revolutionaries).

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  fulltimestudent

  I guess we often think of an improvement in the way most people live in a similar way to prof. Rosler, I posted this thread after seeing some examples of simple things that could change peoples lives for the better. Sadly, these simple things may make not people rich, so they do not get promoted.

  So with the possibility that someone/something may help, here's some simple things:

  First simple cooling. btw, something like this was used in Australia. I was born somewhere around a crossover point, where now common household goods started to become available and affordable.

  In 1944, my father made an icebox. Built out of solid timber -with an inner and outer case and sawdust insulation. Cooling was by a block of ice, frozen at the local meatworks, (they had an ammonia plant and could freeze lots of ice). It extended the safe period for keeping meat and milk etc.

  An even simpler method could be seen in some homes. Just a gauze covered cupboard, over which you hung wet bags, evaporative cooling did the rest. Not highly effective but better than nothing.

  A similar concept is at work in this device, used for hundreds of years:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNLPeb3qIhc
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  China's Dying Villages and the Problem of Land Use

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  the chinese newspaper, the people's daily (english, web, edition) has images of a dying 800 year old village, that illustrates some trends and problems in modern china.

  it is not typical of all the problems causing urbanisation in china, but does illustrate some.. the village is dacan ancient village, located in yuxian, in north china's shanxi province.

  it is surrounded by mountains.

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  fulltimestudent

  We can understand better the problem of poor dying villages in China with the aid of this map (from Wikipedia)

  Its color coded to indicate population densities.

  

  English: SVG Map of China's population densities by province. No Labels.

  Cant paste the color code, but it runs from the deepest color at the top indicating a population density of 900 pus people to the square km down to the palest pink at the bottom of the chart indicated a population density of 50 or less per sq. km.

  Go to the Wikipedia page if you want to check clearly. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:China_Pop_Density.svg ) Its easy to understand the population problems. Some parts under-populated and some parts (along the coast) over-crowded.

  Summed up - East China has most of the population and west China doesn't have many people or opportunities. - a side point while we're thinking about the population distribution.

  At the end of the Korean war, with the threats by Douglas MacArthur (to nuke the entire border between NK and China) fresh in mind, the Chinese government set out to devise a strategy that could deal with the main coastal cities being wiped out by nuclear bombs (which the USA could easily have achieved from bases in Taiwan). With the lessons of the Japanese war (from 1937 to 1945) in mind, they devised what was called, the 'third line strategy.'

  This was a third industrial area located in the wilds of south-west China, intended to provide an alternative production area in case of invasion by the USA. The author of the Wikipedia entry describes it in these words ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Front_(China) ):

  The Third Front ( Chinese : 三线 ; pinyin : Sānxiàn ) was a massive development of industry by China in its south-western interior, where it would be strategically secure in the event of a war . By 1980, the programme had created a railway grid linking previously isolated parts of south-western and western China, in addition to a galaxy of power, aviation and electronic plants, said Zhang Yunchuan , minister of the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense . ( People's Daily Online [1] ).

  That rail network, can only be described as amazing. Western rail engineers called in to advise, often said it could not be done.

  The expertise built then still informs China in its development of a high speed (250kph to 350 kph) rail network. Vast new factories were also constructed inside mountains, safe from aerial attack. Information is difficult to obtain, but it surely has provided some economic advancement for the rural population of S.W. China.
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  10

  China's Dying Villages and the Problem of Land Use

  by fulltimestudent in

  1. social
  2. current

  the chinese newspaper, the people's daily (english, web, edition) has images of a dying 800 year old village, that illustrates some trends and problems in modern china.

  it is not typical of all the problems causing urbanisation in china, but does illustrate some.. the village is dacan ancient village, located in yuxian, in north china's shanxi province.

  it is surrounded by mountains.

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  fulltimestudent

  But some still live here, with their lives not to different from 800 years ago, when the first people began to form the village.

  Grinding grain (though maybe these two women have been roped in to demonstrate how they used to grind grain)

  

  or, caring for live stock.