N R
a Socratic: "All I know is there is so much to be known". - and that the "universe" is big, but life is short...
Location Brazil
Activity
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N R replied to Frances Togneri
This is the last day of my access to this course, so thank you again @MaryRobinson .I wish you enjoy your journeys through History! You might want to check this high-quality documentary on the Sumerians and the origins of civilization https://youtu.be/d2lJUOv0hLA . All the best!
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N R replied to Frances Togneri
@MaryRobinson , I (quite sincerely) appreciate your confirmation of many of my comments and questions during this course, so I could not pass the opportunity to wish you and yours a Happy 2022! May it bring you joy, good health and a lot of patience too... Kind regards.
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my point exactly, @AshleyWhitehouse . Thanks for the feedback!
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And so do I @MichèleBethke . Happy 2022!
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@MichèleBethke, so here is the question I posted in Sect. 1.8 -- thanks again for all your relevant insights shared throughout the course...
Out of curiosity: how were Roman coins minted? Did they have some sort of an imprinting tool? Or were they handmade one by one? Either way - and considering (apparently from the video) their small size, although I was...
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@MichèleBethke , just for clarification: that was a question that I had posted for the group, not for you specifically... regards.
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N R made a comment
Thanks very much to my colleagues, to Prof. Nicholls and to the entire team, to all of you that contributed to the fantastic contents of this course. As well as to the University of Reading for making it available worldwide (Brazil, in my case, just to name one location far away).
Five (actually six for me) weeks went by so fast (but don't they say time flies... -
I hadn't attempted to answer the "biggest impact emperor" question before, but will now: my answer is NONE. And ALL. Each one left its poignant mark, each one was part of a long cause-effect sequence that led Rome to where it got to. To illustrate my point, and just to name one case: were it not for megalomaniac Nero, Vespasian would not have the Colosseum...
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Thank you again @MichèleBethke , this time for answering a question I had posted when we were first exposed to the coins back in week 1.
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N R replied to Laurence Scott
@GeoffO'Farrell , I totally agree. It appears to me mankind doesn't seem to have learned our History (Roman and elsewhere) lessons and insists on taking similar (sometimes the same) dead ends... Quoting a dear old friend: "same, but different --- and vice versa" :-(
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N R replied to Vicky McCulloch
Well thought @VickyMcCulloch, and let me add the washroom areas, janitoring and cleaning crews and facilities... just think about "spectacles" running over 4 months (eg Trajan's 123-day-long venue)...
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N R made a comment
I wonder whether the so-called Turkish bath is actually an original tradition of the Turkic people that came to Anatolia from the Altay mountains in central Asia? Or rather something the Ottomans adopted from the Roman thermae in Constantinople and elsewhere.... Has anyone come across this?
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N R replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
@KieronParkinson @MicheleCampanelli I double that!
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Very well thought @MichèleBethke !. You answered the question that was "boiling" in my mind: how did the Romans do the heating? But still I wonder where did the massive amount of wood that was required come from? Think about providing for the 900 bathhouses in Rome alone, not to mention over the entire empire, over so many centuries...
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Very well thought @GeoffO'Farrell!. You answered the question that was "boiling" in my mind: how did the Romans do the heating? But still I wonder where did the massive amount of wood that was required come from? Think about providing for the 900 bathhouses in Rome alone, not to mention over the entire empire, over many centuries...
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N R replied to [Learner left FutureLearn]
what a wonderful experience, @MicheleCampanelli !
as a fan of Verona and of Pink Floyd both, how much I "wish I were there"... -
N R made a comment
Fellow students, do not miss this 9-min video taken from Prof Kruschwitz "The Petrified Muse" blog: What can a dog called Margarita teach us about ancient Rome? https://youtu.be/tgo4vm76kS8
And/or read an interview about this video:... -
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N R made a comment
after all the effort of Augustus, Hadrian, and so many other "big shots" to be remembered, is that not a transcendental feeling that poor Domitia Eucarpia survived her 12 years to be remembered, 2000 years later, by us in places her generation would never had thought of (Americas, Far East, Oceania, Far East, etc)?
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N R made a comment
The baker's story raised a question on how slaves were differentiated on the streets from lower-class citizens? Assuming clothes might not be too different for these two groups , would slaves have to carry any indicative signs? Or maybe it was just unusual (or forbidden) for slaves to wander about in the city?
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N R made a comment
I find it a fascinating detective work to (seriously) look for missing (Roman) clues in a baker's tomb and other indirect evidence that survived the millennia... As in Prof Kruschwitz's Mappola academic project and Petrified Muse website, both exploring poetry and epigraphy -- congratulations!
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N R replied to Andrew King
@RebeccaLightfoot thanks very much for sharing this illustrative article (dated 1960...)
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N R replied to Andrew King
great question @AndrewKing . In addition, as mentioned in an earlier post, I wonder about the traffic of carts and horses, assuming they would be ubiquitous in the commercial areas particularly. That would make things messy, wouldn't you think?
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N R made a comment
For those of you who - like I - were fascinated with the Forma Urbis, here's a website of a project intended to 'Solving the Puzzle of the Forma Urbis Romae' . https://accademia.stanford.edu/forma-urbis/
As well as this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4717745.stm -
N R made a comment
I wonder about the traffic of carts and horses, assuming they would be ubiquitous in the commercial areas particularly. That would make things messy, I'd guess...
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N R made a comment
There are two situations I can think of Romans coming face to face with aspects of the divine:
(1) in getting sufficient water, food and other means of subsistence, so perhaps influencing the architecture of aqueducts and market places;
(2) when appeasing Nature on droughts and floods, heat and cold, storms and earthquakes, as reflected perhaps on Venus... -
N R made a comment
Thanks to all the information, in writing and video, and the experience with the model, I now know the Roman temples a ton more than I did a couple of hours ago...
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I take that back... from Matthew's virtual tour of the Pantheon and Campus Martius in section 3.10, I can now tell the eleven columns are not across the front, but rather running the length of Hadrian's temple (see video at 1:20).
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N R made a comment
I noticed the temple of the deified Hadrian is asymmetrical in terms of the number of front columns: eleven. Is that an escape from the architectural norms? Or rather there's a good reason for?
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N R made a comment
As to the question 'Why do you think the difference between the conventional exterior and radically different interior of the Pantheon was so significant?', I wonder if that might have to do with the then recent transformation of the Republic with its traditions (including temple architecture) into the new empire under Augustus, with its broader, cosmopolitan...
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N R made a comment
I was particularly impressed with the many rich details of the model, really a Herculean job that should have taken a long long time... really impressive!
But it seems to me, from the model, that only narrow access ways led to the top of the Capitoline hill where the magnificent temples stood.
Considering there were close to a million people living in Rome... -
N R made a comment
My take is Trajan wanted to convey the impression he could go beyond, outdo Cesar, Augustus, and all that added to the magnificent Imperial Fora afterwards. Trajan showed he was capable to "move mountains", in both figurative and literal (well, a hill, be it...) senses.
Finally. I can only hope he gave Apollodorus the deserved credit... what a gigantic task! -
N R made a comment
That worked for me, luckily. Maybe it's the network traffic at this time of the day, it's now 8:15pm GMT on Saturday. In any case, it's a lot of detail to go through, and that might be why it's oversensitive to small cursor changes, as mentioned in other comments. For novices like me, legends would really help identifying some of the buildings and features,...
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So here is another nice summary of Rome obelisks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_obelisks_in_Rome
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N R made a comment
Coincidentally, I came up with the same amazing National Geographic interactive graphic and story on Trajan's Column that now I see @DianaAebi had posted before: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/trajan-column/index.html
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N R made a comment
Check this amazing National Geographic interactive graphic and story on Trajan's Column: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/trajan-column/index.html
Reading an Ancient Comic Strip - The victory of the Roman emperor Trajan over the Dacians in back-to-back wars is carved in numerous scenes that spiral around a 126-foot marble pillar in Rome known as Trajan’s... -
N R replied to Farida Mukazhanova
Very enlightening, thanks for sharing @FaridaMukazhanova
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I agree with your comments @MichaelGertler . Let me just add that - from my perspective- the republican fora would serve more to their civic, religious, political purposes than the more ornamental series of fora the emperors built as a form of propaganda. Not surprisingly the practice continues to this day, as eloquently demonstrated by the nearby Mussolini’s...
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N R made a comment
As many others here, I am amazed at the model granularity and meticulous level of detail, on an academic basis! Hercules should be jealous of such tremendous labour!
As to Porta Maggiore, I wonder if the brown and white arches of the two aqueducts were their "real" colours?
Also, if I were Emperor Claudius (!!!) I'd have each of the vias going through a... -
N R made a comment
A Roman aqueduct in South America might make the Romans proud...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carioca_Aqueduct -
N R made a comment
Fascinating!
Guess what? The ubiquitous building material in Brazil is a red brick, approx. 25 x 10 x 5 centimeters. Definitely another legacy from Portugal, i.e. from the Roman province of Lusitania... small world, isn't it?
Well, to be accurate, I googled the Roman brick proportions are 6:2:1, so not exactly our own. But still, no wonder adjustments... -
N R made a comment
Out of curiosity: how were Roman coins minted? Did they have some sort of an imprinting tool? Or were they handmade one by one? Either way - and considering (apparently from the video) their small size, although I was amazed at the level of detail - how could one tell which building they portray?
Did they have a 'legend' so to speak? Or perhaps from the... -
N R made a comment
As to the type of evidence and research for investigating Roman architecture, I can think of: literary sources, surviving architectural elements (in Rome, and elsewhere that was part of the Roman empire), inscriptions, numismatic evidences. I think aqueducts and sewers were also already mentioned. And maybe even non-Roman sources (eg Christian records come to...
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N R replied to Dinora Levy
Thanks @DinoraLevy for the very interesting reference to the Portuguese work. Are you perhaps referring to:
Alexandrino Gonçalves, João Paulo Moura, Luís Magalhães, Alan Chalmers. Perceptual images of Conimbriga using High Dynamic Range.
January 2013, Journal of Archaeological Science 40(1):116–128
DOI: 10.1016/j.jas.2012.06.024 -
N R made a comment
Repeating myself after first seeing Portico Octaviae: The model is worth a thousand images! And now, with a more comprehensive perspective, I just cannot imagine how much time, patience - and detective work alongside - were invested on its development… Congratulations for taking this Herculean job and thanks for sharing!
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Most every time in history (in life actually) we see the evolution, seldom a real revolution...
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@FionaMcIntosh @RebeccaLightfoot Thanks for sharing!
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Nicely put @MichaelGertler !
Acceptance and absorption that might have started with the amalgamation of the proto-Roman groups living in the 7+ hills. If that was really so, then we could say that Acceptance and absorption are in the Roman DNA… -
N R made a comment
The model is a wonderful visualization tool: if an image is worth a thousand words, then the model is worth a thousand images! I cannot imagine how much time and patience was invested on it… congratulations!
The “visit” to Portico's Octaviae raised a few questions:
- is the garden area, with trees and grass, typical of other Roman temples?
- where were the... -
N R made a comment
Having been interested in World History all my life, Rome always shone very brightly to me, of course. Then my first visit there left an awesome feeling of “a time travel”, when it downed on me how many people - emperors, legionaries, artisans, slaves- had trodden those same steps, how many events - worldly and personal - took place there, year after year...
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N R made a comment
In my specific case, the Roman legacy manifests every day of my life in the form of the language I speak, the way I communicate, and indirectly in the cultural figures and shapes that come with it.
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@RomayneW, so nicely put it... oh life is definitely short, whilst our "universe" (in whichever way one defines it...) is so big (and beautiful too, I'd add)
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N R replied to Pamela Hanger
@PamelaHanger , just so you know, some of the gems I take are your likings of my comments… it’s always reassuring to realise we are not just this grain of sand on a beach, but rather there still is comm-UNI-cation with other kindred grains of sand somewhere in this immense world of ours.
Wishing you “be well, be safe, be in peace” and may you continue to... -
N R replied to Pamela Hanger
@PamelaHanger , just so you know, some of the gems I take are your likings of my comments… it’s always reassuring to realise we are not just this grain of sand on a beach, but rather there still is comm-UNI-cation with other kindred grains of sand somewhere in this immense world of ours.
Wishing you “be well, be safe, be in peace” and may you continue to... -
@JenOpie , those are true and sincere, rather than 'generous', words.
May you be happy, may you be well, may you be healthy...
And may you continue to lead your mindful life, thus inspiring and enlightening others. Go well...
“À l'aurore, armés d'une ardente patience, nous entrerons aux splendides Villes. (At dawn, armed with a burning patience, we shall... -
N R replied to Annalisa Rivoli
@JenOpie in parentheses, from my personal experience the "refilling the water bottle" component (ie drinking water!) of the periodic breaks is also extremely beneficial, to the mind and the body!
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@DM-L I completely agree with the "get a glass of water" component of periodic breaks. That operates miracles (almost literally...)
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N R replied to Stephanie Ferretti
@JenOpie thanks once more for the precious practical recommendations in Meg Selig's excellent paper.
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N R made a comment
I take the course before the Sun rises & the daily rush with it. But knowing it is after midnight in Melbourne, I cannot miss being grateful to the Monash team. For the years of scientific Mindfulness research, for applying it into professional practice, & then for caring about sharing the positive results to the public (120 countries just this run!). That’s...
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N R made a comment
This (past) week of the course made me remind of this old Brazilian song that I wish all of us (starting with myself) could sing along, each and everyday - it is called: "I love ME" !!!!
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Thank you @DM-L for so nicely (almost poetically...) putting it!
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N R replied to Les Pedrick
@LesPedrick @JenOpie @magswatson @CatrionaBurton , thanks for the exchange. Besides - in my personal experience - my lack of self-appreciation is (unmindfully...) compounded by the fact many people are not shy at all in showing conceit and immodesty... But I shall persevere in Jen's significant orientation!
Sorry for intruding in your Monday, but it's... -
N R replied to Geraldine karran
@JenOpie , as Einstein said: "A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘universe,’ a part limited in time and space.".
So true, yet how many of us, so many times, feel like "the centre of the universe", the single source of the good (or the bad, for that sake...)?
If /when that happens, we should remember Einstein again, this time telling us... -
@KrystynaSibielak , I absolutely agree! Here's another related extract from https://self-compassion.org/embracing-our-common-humanity-with-self-compassion/ :
"Once we fall into the trap of believing that things are “supposed” to go well, we tend to think something has gone terribly amiss when they suddenly don’t. Again, this isn’t a conscious thought process,... -
@HelenH @JenOpie @AvrilStanford @NiaG thanks for the kind & heartful exchange, that was also dear & near to me!
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@DM-L , I'm glad for you! Very inspiring. Now, can you imagine what "perfection" means (meant, I should say...) to an engineer?
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N R replied to Nicola James
@NicolaJames , thanks for sharing! very much so myself... will definitely act more mindfully (and self-kindly...) to escape that terrible "tempus fugit" sensation...
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N R made a comment
in addition to the many relevant, applicable points that were raised during this week (eg assertiveness over risking acting as a doormat, compassion over empathy), maintaining a mindful attitude (ie being present, open, non-judgmental) can help me not to take things personally and to persevere in kindness (to others and myself) as a means to redress neural...
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@AnneW , how very nicely you put it! Fits like a glove to me...
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@NiaG , you might take a look at @JenOpie 's reply tp D M-L above dated 28 APR, where she remarks that:
With the meditation practices in this section of the course, it increasingly becomes more habitual to relate to the world in kinder and more gentle ways, however, this does not mean that we should be apathetic when interacting with people who treat us... -
@JenOpie, nice reminder on the compromise between compassion and assertiveness. Thanks.
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@JenOpie thanks for remarking the importance of perseverance and self-kindness for redressing neural pathways. I'm sure that applies to all aspects of mindfulness practices, not just kindness and compassion.
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@MaryP, @CarmenFS and @JenOpie , thanks for pointing out to this excellent article! I also benefitted from it. Here are a couple of outstanding (in my opinion) extracts:
“Reining in overempathy requires emotional intelligence; its underlying skill is self-awareness. You need always to be prepared to explore and meet your own needs. Since you’re not used to... -
N R made a comment
After going through these two last topics of the course, I am (sincerely) amazed at how quickly they came to my rescue, not once, but in two different situations that arose during the day.
I certainly realise there's no magic wand, but that was quite a promising start for "a long and mindful road" ahead.... and don't they say the first step is usually the... -
May I share this (quite meaningful to me...) extract from Dr Kristin Neff's https://self-compassion.org/self-compassion-for-caregivers/:
But what is self-compassion exactly? Drawing on the writings of various Buddhist scholars, I have defined self-compassion as having 3 main components, self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness.
- Self-kindness... -
@Zan. thanks for sharing your experience. If that helps, rest assured you are not alone... so let us be mindful!
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@JenOpie, just a small house-keeping note: in the 'See also' section, the (third) link to "Social Media Use and Perceived Social Isolation Among Young Adults in the U.S." is taking to the other similar article on depression.
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@JenOpie, thanks for another relevant quote!
One of my favorites, is Ludwig Wittgenstein's short & to-the-point one: “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.”
(oh, how I wished...) -
N R made a comment
From the 'Mindful Listening - Using empathy to listen instead of offering advice' article in the 'See also' section: "According to Dr. Joseph Dispenza, humans process only 2,000 of the 400 billion pieces of information that come into our brain per second. This means that we only process a tiny fraction of what we hear from others."
Just to put things (i.e. us... -
N R made a comment
Significant point: "When we practise in this way, listening to others fully becomes a meditation practice itself."
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@ShirleyE , it did to me as well. Another take-home message from this course:
"Because comm-uni-cation, in the middle of that word, is unity. Two people connecting as one – or more than two people. But unity is the real connection. And that doesn’t happen without attention being fully and properly engaged." -
@BonnieM. that is pretty much a description of my own sensations... Enjoy that time to/with yourself!
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@JenOpie , the powerful quotes from JKZ are sincerely appreciated. I cut & pasted them together in a single text to be definitely revisited on a regular basis. Thank you!
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@KrystynaSibielak, great hint! I'll try it...
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@JenOpie , your enthusiasm transpires from your postings and comments. Thank you!
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@AvrilStanford , very much the same here...
Actually, the excerpts of Craig's "Mindfulness for Life" book are powerful, enriching reflections and reminders.
And the Shakespeare quote from Hamlet is another pearl: "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." -
N R made a comment
The first ‘Mindfulness for Wellbeing and Peak Performance’ course was a big eye-opener (mind-opener, I should say…) and I have been applying many of its lessons on a daily basis, mostly through the great Smiling Mind app. So this new course comes in quite handy and timely for sustaining - and hopefully expanding - my experience in mindfulness. Thanks in...
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N R made a comment
I`ve always been interested in my family history, and in expanding my genealogy tree, but the engineer in me always wanted to do it methodically, rationally… Therefore I appreciated both the conceptual structure and the practical guidelines provided along the course. Only sad to see many are not applicable to my side of planet (Brazil), but that's just another...
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N R made a comment
I appreciated both the conceptual structure and the practical guidelines provided along the course. Only sad to see many are not applicable to my side of planet (Brazil), but that's just another motivation to go after what's available in local sources.
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N R made a comment
Our ancestors, as much as ourselves and our descendants, are actors against the backdrop of History. There's no way to dissociate one from another.
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N R replied to christine canwell
@christinecanwell, you were able to "photograph" my feelings this morning... yes, life is too short, and a large portion of it wasted on "small stuff"... so let us 'carpe diem', actually each hour of the day.is precious.
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N R replied to Susan Coutinho
@SusanCoutinho just curious: do you have family in Brazil? My wife is a Coutinho... cheers!
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@DianeHunley, may I offer a different perspective? Often times one finds out it was that old erased piece of data that was the good, valid one... so I'd rather use a pen and just strike over (while still leaving the data readable). Just in case
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N R replied to Angela Gallagher
pretty much the same here.......
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After I asked, here's what I came across: https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/3-tips-google-genealogy/
(but the question still holds, if you please...) -
@JamesMillard thanks for sharing your experience. Since you were not the first one to mention Google here, let me ask? "which Google" is that? The plain Google? Or a specific "Google Genealogy"-sort? After all there's Google for almost everything these days... Cheers!.
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@VanessaBailey to add to the complexity, facts are not binarily either false or true, but rather something in between...
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N R made a comment
If not all primary evidence is reliable, if spelling changes, memory fails and family stories can be (even unintentionally) skewed, the key message/rule is:
check, double-check, cross-check each and everything, like a Holmes or Poirot would do, before rushing out (no matter how big the temptation may be...) to claiming any fact...
