Posts Tagged ‘universal metaphors’

About the Nine Spiritual Bodies of Ancient Egypt

Saturday, August 1st, 2009

Guide to Iconic Rolex Watch Collections

A Guide to Iconic Rolex Watches

Shopping for a luxury watch? Rolex is one of the world’s most well-known luxury watch brands, and you may have come to find that there are many collections to choose from.

 

Over the years, Rolex has released many different collections of watches, each with its own unique designs and features. From the Submariner to the Milgauss, each Rolex collection tells a story, embodies unique physical characteristics, and includes some stand-out models. This guide will give you a closer look at some of the most celebrated Rolex watches you can shop for, starting with the ever-iconic Submariner collection.

Did you know Rolex used to make red boxes? Watch this YouTube Short video on the evolution of Rolex watch boxes: 

The Rolex Submariner

The Rolex Submariner watch was launched in 1953 and is known as the first divers’ wristwatch. It is waterproof to a depth of 1,000 feet. It is characterized by a graduated rotatable bezel, a luminescent display, and large hands and hour markers for optimum performance and visibility underwater. The bezel insert, manufactured by Rolex from a hard, corrosion-resistant ceramic, has a special chemical composition that cannot corrode. Today, the Submariner remains an iconic timepiece enjoyed by both diving professionals and everyday watch enthusiasts. Standout models include the 50th anniversary “Kermit” watch and the “Hulk. Read more about special edition Rolex watches here.

product image of rolex submariner watch FASHIONPHILE

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The Rolex Datejust

Known by Rolex as “the watch for the dates to remember,” the Rolex Datejust was created in 1945 and symbolizes Rolex’s definition of elegance. It is known as the first self-winding waterproof chronometer wristwatch to feature a window displaying the date (hence the name). The date is magnified by a cyclops lens, offering comfort, legibility, and daily time management. It’s an ideal timepiece for the daily active watch wearer. Rolex continuously releases new Datejusts to perfectly adapt to all the personalities of its wearers. Standout models include Datejust models with unique dials and bracelets.

product image of rolex datejust watch FASHIONPHILE

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The Rolex GMT-Master II

The Rolex GMT-Master II is the successor to the model created in 1955 for airline pilots. It is the ideal watch for crisscrossing the globe, according to Rolex. With an additional 24-hour hand and a two-color rotatable graduated bezel, the GMT-Master II is known for simultaneously displaying two timezones. It also features a chromalight display that allows the hands and hour markers filled with luminescent material to emit a long-lasting glow in the dark. The two-color bezel makes this Rolex style instantly recognizable by onlookers.  Standout models include the GMT-Master II “Pepsi,” “Sprite,” “Batman,” “Batgirl,” and “Root Beer.” These are the best replica rolex.

product image of rolex GMT Master II FASHIONPHILE

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The Rolex Day-Date

First conceptualized in 1956, the Rolex Day-Date is a widely recognized watch that displays both the day and the date. The technology of displaying both day and the date was revolutionary for the time.  Learn what makes a fake Rolex Day-Date fake in this post.

On the Day-Date, the date is located at 3 o’clock, and the day is spelled out in full at 12 o’clock. Rolex offers different languages for its wearers to choose from to allow for cultural identity expression. Today, both the day and date capability makes the Day-Date a precious timepiece for everyday use. According to Rolex, this style presents the balance between elegance and technical excellence, sometimes giving it the nickname “presidents’ watch.” Standout models include platinum diamond versions.

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Why Numbers are Waves

Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008

If you’re struggling with meal planning and eating healthy right now, you’re not alone. While trying to avoid grocery stores, you may be ordering more take-out than usual or reaching for snacks you normally would not eat due to stress or because healthier choices are not available. It’s completely OK and understandable to cut yourself some slack, but it’s also important to make sure you are getting enough nutrients to support yourself. Take a look to the best Alpilean customer reviews.

If you’re struggling with meal planning and eating healthy right now, you’re not alone. While trying to avoid grocery stores, you may be ordering more take-out than usual or reaching for snacks you normally would not eat due to stress or because healthier choices are not available. It’s completely OK and understandable to cut yourself some slack, but it’s also important to make sure you are getting enough nutrients to support yourself.

“Our bodies need to be nourished to fight infection and disease,” said Marissa Epstein, director of the UT Nutrition Institute. “A team of nutrients in foods work interdependently to strengthen our immune response when our bodies are defending against infection.”

Epstein says the first step in incorporating a more nutritious diet at home is reframing your attitude toward healthy eating by remembering all of your favorite healthy foods that make you happy and feel good. Creating these positive associations can help take off some of the stress around healthy eating — making it feel less intimidating and demanding.

We asked Epstein to share some healthy nutrition tips to inspire our current meal planning.

1. Set a schedule.

You should be taking a break and eating every three to four hours based on your hunger cues — starting with breakfast. Add an appointment on your calendar or set an alarm on your phone to remind yourself when to take snack and meal breaks.

2. Shop wisely.

Grocery shopping is serious business. You need a plan that will get you in and out as quickly as possible with food that lasts until your next trip. The best strategy for this is to make a grocery list. Have some backup food options just in case stores run out of your favorite items. If you’re ordering through a curbside pickup service, check your order against your list to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

3. Separate food and work.

Avoid setting up your home office in a place where your kitchen is in plain sight. It’s easy to gaze over your laptop straight into a pantry of snacks, so try your best to avoid the environmental cues tempting you to eat when you’re not hungry. Plan to eat when it’s time to eat and work when it’s time to work. Separating these two activities will help you enjoy your meals more and prevent you from snacking because of stress or boredom.

4. Stay hydrated with food.

Keeping a glass of water at your workstation is a good practice, but drinking water isn’t the only way your body stays hydrated. When you eat foods with high water content such as frozen or fresh fruits and vegetables, your body breaks down the water trapped inside the plant fibers. That water is released into your body slowly — keeping you hydrated for an extended period.

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How the Proof of the Pudding is Really in the Eating

Monday, August 25th, 2008

When you want to know the truth you are looking for facts. This seems very evident but Philosophy and especially the field of Epistemology has spend a lot of time to find out if this Statement about Truth is really True.

The first step is to look up the definition of the word “fact“. We use Wordnet to do this. WordNet is a semantic lexicon for the English Language. The database contains about 150,000 words.

Fact: A piece of information about circumstances that exist or events that have occurred.
Fact: A statement or assertion of verified information about something that is the case or has happened.
Fact: An event known to have happened or something known to have existed.
Fact: A concept whose truth can be proved.

The meaning of words changes in history. If you want to know how the meaning is changed you have to look up the Etymology of the word.

Fact: 1539, “action” especially “evil deed,” from L. factum “event, occurrence,” lit. “thing done,” from neut. pp. of facere “to do”. Usual modern sense of “thing known to be true” appeared 1632, from notion of “something that has actually occurred.”

When we combine the result of both dictionaries we see that the original meaning of the word “Fact” is-related to the word “Event”. Later around 1632 it changed into a concept “whose truth can be proved”.

To find more about the meaning of the word Event we can look for all the occurrences of this word in the sentences of English language. One of the scientists who spend a lot of time researching the meaning of the word “Event” is George Lakoff. He defined The Event Structure Metaphor.

A Metaphor Is-A Mapping. A Mapping Is-A Relation between two Domains, the Source and the Target.

The Event Structure Metaphor is one of the most widespread of all the conceptual metaphors in the world. It maps from the source domain of Space to the target domain of Events, and leads to the following concepts:

A State Is-A Location (a bounded region in space).
A Change Is-A Movement (into or out of bounded region).
A Cause Is-A Force.
An Action Is-A Self-Propelled Movement.
A Purpose Is-A Destination.
A Mean Is-A Path to destinations.
A Difficulty Is-A Blockage.
Expected Progress Is-A Travel Schedule.
A Schedule Is-A Virtual Traveler, who reaches pre-arranged destinations at pre-arranged times.
An External Event Is-A Large Moving Object.
A Long-term, purposeful activity Is-A Journey.

An Event Is-A Blockage that prevents us to Move from One Destination to an other Destination in the Journey called Life. To Move from one Destination to an other Destination we are Propelling our Self. Sometimes we are propelled By something else, An External Event. If this Happens it feels like we are hit by a Large Moving Object.

When we are Hit by an External Event “things get out of hand” or “we are not able to keep a tight rein on the situation” or “we are not going with the flow” or “things take a turn for the worse“.

A Fact is an Event that Causes the Emotion of Frustration (Anger, Irritation, Sadness, Worry,..). An Event Forces us to Move Away from our Original Route, the Path that leads us to the Destination that we wanted to Reach in Life. We have to take a Detour.

What happened around 1632?

Around 1632 Francis Bacon advocated a new method for achieving knowledge, based on careful observation and eliminative induction. Bacon warned that effective reasoning must be freed from the “idolatrous” influence of human nature (Emotions & Imagination).

Francis Bacon started The Age of Enlightenment. The Enlightenment advocated reason as a means to establishing an authoritative philosophical system which would allow human beings to obtain objective truth about the whole of reality. Much later Emmual Kant dedicated his Critique of Pure Reason to Francis Bacon.

What happened?

Facts were moved from the Emotions (Judgement, Opinion) to the Level of the Mind (Truth). With the help of Logic it would be possible to Prove Everything.

According to Aristotle there are four types of truth: universal affirmatives take the form: All S are P, universal negations take the form: No S are P, particular affirmatives take the form: Some S are P, particular negations take the form: Some S are not P. Later so called contingent truths were added. They are dependent on the situation/context.

The Quest for the Eternal Logical Truth is still going on. Many very bright minds have tried to find a solution but the terrible thing is that the Truth of a logical proposition is entirely dependent on the Truth of the Facts that are put into the Proposition. We are again in a State of Infinite Regress.

One of these bright minds was Frank Plumpton Ramsey (1903-1930). Ramsey lived and worked in Cambridge and was befriended with Bertrand Russell, G. E. Moore, J. M. Keynes and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Ramsey created a theory called Pragmatism.

In his paper ‘Truth and Probability’, written in 1926, Ramsey shows that if people in their behaviour obey a set of axioms or rules, the measure of our ‘degrees of belief’ will satisfy the laws of probability. The Truth is highly related to Judgment and “if we have analysed judgment we have solved the problem of truth“.

“..it is, for instance, possible to say that a chicken believes a certain sort of caterpillar to be poisonous, and mean by that merely that it abstains from eating such caterpillars on account of unpleasant experiences connected with them. … An exact analysis of this relation would be very difficult, but it might well be held that in regard to this kind of belief the pragmatist view was correct, i.e. that the relation between the chicken’s behaviour and the objective factors was that the actions were such as to be useful if, and only if, the caterpillars were actually poisonous. Thus any set of actions for whose utility p is a necessary and sufficient condition might be called a belief that p, and so would be true if p, i.e., if they are useful“.

What Ramsey is telling is that “the proof of the pudding is in the eating“.

What happened?

We are finally back to square one! After about 400 years of Enlightment we have to admit that the only way to find the Truth is to find out if what we Think is true is really True. We don’t have to use very complicated reasoning to prove what we are already experiencing in the Real World.

LINKS

About the Age of Reason

About Pragmatism and Ramsay

About Truth

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About Pan and Anarchy

Thursday, September 20th, 2007

panIn 2002 the book Panarchy: Understanding Transformations in Human and Natural Systems, (Gunderson, L.H and Holling, C.S (eds)) was published. To my knowledge this is one of the most important books of our time.

Panarchy is the first theory that is able to explain the behavior of complex ecosystems. It is an integration of many former theories in economics, biology, ecology, sociology, mathematics, psychology and other sciences.

Have a look at RA to learn more about Panarchy. You will be surprised by the amount of interesting articles and insights.

In this blog I will use long citations: “The world has not collapsed because natural ecological systems have the resilience to experience wide change and still maintain the integrity of their functions.

The world also has not collapsed because of human behavior and creativity. People do learn, however spasmodically. Change and extreme transformations have been part of humanity’s evolutionary history. People’s adaptive capabilities, have made it possible not only to persist passively, but to create and innovate when limits are reached.

The controls determined by each set of biotic structuring processes within terrestrial ecosystems are remarkably robust and the behaviors resulting are remarkably resilient. That robustness comes from functional diversity and spatial heterogeneity in the species and physical variables that mediate the key processes that structure and organize patterns in ecosystems and landscapes.

The stability domains that define the type of system (e.g. forest, savanna, grassland, or shrub steppe) are so large that external disturbances have to be extreme and/or persistent before the system flips irreversibly into another state. Except under extreme climatic conditions, Mother Nature is not basically in a state of delicate balance. If She were, the world would indeed have collapsed long ago“.

panarchy model

The books starts with a description of the five metaphors or world-views that are used to look at Nature. These metaphors are the same metaphors Bhaktin uses to describe the proces of the evolving narratives in human culture.

The World-Views are connected to Mathematical Models that are commonly used in Science to explain an Ecology. The authors show that every model has its consequences. The most beautifull thing they show is that these models are not wrong. They are needed to keep the Cycle of the Ecology running.

panarchy levels

What they also show is that a Panarchy-cycle uses a memory when the Ecology is collapsing. Somewhere a small area is preserved. It contains the “seeds” of the new Cycle. We have to look back when we want to move foreward. We also have to look back to learn feom our mistakes. “People do learn, however spasmodically”. Learning is not copying. We have “to create and innovate when limits are reached”.

Somewhere in History the Seeds of the New Cycle are available. A beautifull example is the Sacred Groove. It is a place where very old trees are preserved by the local community. They need the trees to aquire medicine to cure deseases or snake bites.

Because the new Cycle has to be based on Harmony I feel you have to have a look at China. China is not only the Economy Power that is able to destroy the World when it moves on the way it moves. It is also the Culture where Harmony was the basic Concept. When you read my blogs you will see that I use many Chinese Concepts to explain.

The theory is a Self-Referencial (“Fractal“) theory and uses the Moebius Ring as the central concept. You understand why I was flabbergasted when I found Panarchy on the Internet.

The last thing that made me very enthousiastic is the name Panarchy. It is based on the name of the Old Greek God of Joy and Nature, Pan.

Pan was “Goat-legged, enthusiastic, a lover of ectacy, dancing among the stars, weaving the harmony of the Cosmos into playfull song” (The Orphic Hymns). The myth was told in Early Creece that he had left the Earth. It is of a high urgency that we ask Pan to come back. We can only save Mother Nature when we become enthusiastic again to weave Harmony all over the World.

Pan is also the God of Dance and Rythm:

“Complex natural systems work in rhythms – with a front-loop phase of slow, incremental growth and accumulation, and a back-loop stage of rapid reorganisation leading to renewal, to, collapse. The front-loop phase is more predictable with higher degrees of certainty.

In both the natural and social worlds, it maximises production and accumulation. The consequence of this is an accumulation and concentration of wealth, but also emergence of greater vulnerability, due to the increasing number of interconnections that link that wealth, and those that bear it, in efforts to sustain it.

Little time and few resources are available for alternatives that explore different visions or opportunities. Emergence and novelty is inhibited. This growing connectedness leads to increasing rigidity in its goal to retain control, and the system becomes ever more tightly bound together. This reduces resilience and the capacity of the system to absorb change, thus increasing the threat of abrupt change.

We can recognise the needs for change but become politically stifled in our capacity to act effectively. Wealth and broadening wealth accumulated to lead to our present vulnerability on a world stage.

We are entering the back loop of re-organisation that entails the collapse of accumulated connections, the release of bound up knowledge and capital. But it also opens a creative potential and the opportunity for ‘creative destruction“.

The World and Our Society is now in the non-predictable back-loop stage of rapid reorganisation, creative destruction, collaps and renewal. It will soon jump back to an early stage where the Seeds of the New Cycle of Creation are Stored.

Because the Long Term Cycle of Earth is now Collapsing we have to look back for a long time to find the Seeds. The most impressive collaps of our World happened when the Great Flood appeared at 3117 BC.

Strangely enough 3117 BC is the start of the Mayan Calendar and the Indian Kali Yuga (“The Dark Age“).  Before that time the Humans lived in the Green Sahara also called Paradise. At that time Pan, the God of Nature,  was still there.

Do we have to move back to Paradise to Start All over Again?

LINKS

About Panarchy

About the Great Flood

About Social Cohesion

About World View

About Chinese Concepts

About the Fractal Universe

About the Green Sahara and Paradise

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