Dear friends,
Let’s go back to Alan Townend, this time Women’s Day.
Bye for now.
José Sarto
Dear friends,
Another of Alan Townend’s 'A spring in your step".
Bye for now.
José Sarto
A Real Letter from a Roman Soldier
Posted on November 25, 2009 by 100swallows
Written in the second century by a kid named Apion from a small town in Egypt.
He enlisted in the Roman army at Alexandria, got on a big government ship, and sailed to Italy. The ship made it through a terrible storm.
As soon as he landed and got his new uniform and pay, he went to have his picture painted for his family and sent it home along with this letter:
Here is the actual letter, beautifully written in Greek on papyrus, not by the boy himself but by a hired public letter-writer.
Two of Apion’s friends who enlisted with him added their greetings in the left-hand margin.
The letter was originally folded and sealed like this one:
It went by the very efficient Roman military post and made it safely all the way to the little village in Egypt, where the boy’s father and family read it almost two thousand years ago. After the father died, the letter got lost in the household rubbish and archaeologists found it not too long ago under the fallen walls of the house. With it was another letter written by Apion years later to his sister after he had long been stationed somewhere on the Roman frontier and had a wife and children of his own. That is all we know.
His little portrait was something like this:
Fayum mummy portrait
‘Mortal danger’
The Pentagon estimates that 20,000 Russian troops may now be in Crimea, while the Ukrainian border guards’ commander puts the figure at 30,000.
Ukraine’s flag-bearer Mykhaylo Tkachenko arrives in the stadium during the opening ceremony of the 2014 Paralympic Winter Games in Sochi, on 7 March 2014 Ukraine’s team was represented by a lone flag-bearer at the Sochi Paralympic Winter Games opening ceremony
Map
President Putin insists that the armed men are local “self-defence forces”, and are not under his command.
Dear friends,
This time “Not really”,by Alan Townend.
Thanks for your attention.
José Sarto
Dear friends,
Now 'Good bye summer", by Alan Townend.
Thanks again.
José Sarto
Dear friends,
Now it’s your choice to listen or not to listen to “Your choice”, naturally by Alan Townend.
Bye for now.
José Sarto
Dear friends,
Now “In short”, by Alan Towend.
Have a great week.
José Sarto
Dear friends,
Now 'Words, words,words"by A.Townend.
Have a great week.
José Sarto
My answers an article:
dailymail.co.uk/news/article … -work.html
How to learn English in our busy world or accelerated world? My question: How long can we accelerate our world? Where is the limit. Don’ you think we reached the enough’s enough. When the children couldn’t care about their beloved parents as they don’t have time to care about them. When they send them in hospice to die in strange surroundings where everybody struggles with the same problem. Before their death they lost their beloved children and face the death alone, by oneself.
This is due to the accelerated world. Now and then there are STILL some counterexamples. The accelerated world is a straight way to the inhumanity. As Professor McLeod said: ‘This is not just a minor worry any more. It can be a serious crisis in people’s lives.’
My second answer the previous article.
.“CORNER-CUTTING CULTURE we are all in the firing line”- This is a very fearful statement. What does corner-cutting mean?
“If you “cut corners,” you are doing something in a a very fast or inexpensive manner, ignoring details and niceties.” It can be a neutral expression or it can be a SERIOUS ALLEGATION , AS IN THE CASE OF A CONTRACTOR THAT CUT CORNERS WHICH LATER RESULTED IN A BUILDING COLLAPSING. As the article declares that we are living a corner-cutting culture that’s why we are all in the fire line. That’s why the collapsing, the nervous breakdown threatens all of us.Corner-cutting culture, which involve that we all work against the clock, because of lack of time we forget to gaze at the details and niceties of nature. Is Rousseau saying again considered? Back to Nature.
Accelerating world
I am not an exception I am also a part of this accelerated world. When I began to learn English my life also reliant on computers.
In the article was written that this accelerated life began in the US and Japan. But it is a contagious disease and the great part of the world is infected with it.
When my daughter got married to an American man I couldn’t understand why so important to work themselves to death when they have an affluent background.
I feel ashamed of telling about how they drive themselves very hard and my grandchildren also.
The accelerated world in the sixties in Japan. This pic is very expressive about it.
Text with the pic.
Murphy’s Law about Queue— Demonstrated
youtube.com/watch?v=Oo0Yr9r3zEk
So I love Murphy’s law. I used to look for the best line and something always happened. We are unable to work out how long our queuing will last.
That’s why I told myself ” you were loitering about, payed no attention to the time and now when you finished your buying and you are going toward the checkout you want to choose the most quickest line for making up the lost time.”
As this never was successful , it happened to me in the same way as in the film, I was running panic-stricken from one line to the others and it was not quickest but always I lost out on it.
So today I ignored the other lines, I think that it is a chance that I finished my shopping, and if I hadn’t finished it I would strolling at a leisurely pace between the aisles and I wouldn’t be stressed.
We become hurry when we see the checkout. Try take it easy . So you can avoid that your shopping finishes being stressed.
Dear friends,
Now comes “My life and work”, from Henry Ford, of A Patriot’s Handbook, selected by Caroline Kennedy.
Thanks.
José Sarto
Dear friends,
Now ashort article “They won’t think” by Thomas Alva Edison,1921 from A Patriot’s Handbook.
Thanks.
JoséSarto
1.part. ATLANTIS
Sunken city gives up its treasure: Ancient Egyptian metropolis lost for 1,200 years below Mediterranean sea set to go on display
Heracleion was submerged by the sea and sands 1,200 years ago
Was discovered during a survey at the beginning of the last decade
Archaeologists are now preparing to show some of the objects found
The 'lost city of Atlantis has eluded explorers for centuries and is almost certainly the stuff of myth.
Staggeringly, though, an ancient city that is Atlantis in all but name has emerged from under the sea near Alexandria — and now the lost world of Heracleion is giving up its treasures.
Just as in the classical tale, Heracleion was once a prosperous, thriving city before it was engulfed by the sea around 1,500 years ago. It was grand enough to be mentioned by the Greek writer Herodotus, the 5th-century BC historian.
He told the fabulous story of Helen of Troy, the most beautiful woman in the world — she of the face that launched a thousand ships — travelling to Heracleion, then a port of ‘great wealth’, with her glamorous Trojan lover, Paris.
SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO
A colossal statue of an ancient unknown Pharaoh lies on a barge in an Alexandrian naval base after it was uncovered in the ancient submerged city of Heracleion
stele of Heracleion
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2.part.
Franck Goddio and divers from his team inspect the statue of a pharaoh
Among the most important monuments that were discovered at the temple area of Thonis-Heracleion is this monolithic chapel dating to the Ptolemaic period
But no physical evidence of such a grand settlement appeared until 2001, when a group led by French marine archaeologist Franck Goddio stumbled upon some relics that led them to one of the greatest finds of the 21st century.
Goddio was in search of Napoleon’s warships from the 1798 Battle of the Nile, when he was defeated by Nelson in these very waters, but came upon this much more significant discovery.
Goddio’s team has since been joined by the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology and the Department of Antiquities of Egypt to produce a wealth of dazzling finds.
The archaeologists first faced the mammoth task of reassembling massive stone fragments on the seabed before they could haul them to the surface. Twelve years on, their fabulous finds have been exposed to public view for the first time after more than a millennium spent beneath the silt and water of Aboukir Bay, 20 miles north-east of Alexandria.
Among the discoveries are colossal statues of the Egyptian goddess Isis, the god Hapi, and an unidentified Egyptian pharaoh — all preserved in immaculate condition by their muddy burial shroud. Along with these 16ft statues there are hundreds of smaller statues of Egyptian gods — among them the figures that guarded the temple where Cleopatra was inaugurated as Queen of the Nile.
3.part.
It seems the Amun-Gereb temple at Heracleion was the Egyptian equivalent of Westminster Abbey, where our own Queen was crowned 60 years ago.
Dozens of sarcophagi have been found, containing the bodies of mummified animals sacrificed to Amun-Gereb, the supreme god of the Egyptians. Many amulets, or religious charms, have been unearthed, too, showing gods such as Isis, Osiris and Horus.
These were made not just for the Egyptians but for visiting traders, who incorporated them into their own religions and also, one imagines, kept them as trinkets to remind them of their far-flung journeys.
The importance of Heracleion has been further proved by the discovery of 64 ships — the largest number of ancient vessels ever found in one place — and a mind-boggling 700 anchors.
Other finds illustrate how crucial Heracleion was to the economy of the ancient world. Gold coins and lead, bronze and stone weights from Athens (used to measure the value of goods and to calculate the tax owed) show that Heracleion was a lucrative Mediterranean trading post.
An archaeologist measures the feet of a colossal red granite statue at the site of Heracleion discovered in Aboukir Bay
The statue of the Goddess Isis sits on display on a barge in an Alexandrian naval base (left). Pictured right is a colossal statue of red granite representing the god Hapi, which decorated the temple of Heracleion
4.part.
An international team of marine archaeologists is preparing to show some of the objects found in the underwater city
Heracleion was mentioned by the Greek historian Herodotus, who told of Helen of Troy visiting the city with her lover Paris before the Trojan war
In the ancient world, the Mediterranean Sea was their equivalent of a superfast motorway. All their greatest cities, including Constantinople, Rome and Athens, were either on the coast or on rivers with easy access to it.
And now Heracleion can be added to their number as Egypt’s most important port during the time of the later pharaohs. It was, if you like, a major motorway junction — the spot where the Nile, Egypt’s lifeline, met the Med. Archaeologists have determined that as well as having a naturally navigable channel next to its ancient harbour, a further artificial channel appears to have been dug to expedite trade.
The Heracleion finds will add tremendous depth to our understanding of the ancient world — not least because, among the discoveries, there are perfectly preserved steles (inscribed pillars) decorated with hieroglyphics. Translated, they will reveal much about the religious and political life in this corner of ancient Egypt.
It was a similar inscription on the Rosetta Stone — discovered in the Nile Delta town of Rosetta in 1799 by a French soldier, and now in the British Museum — that cracked the code of hieroglyphics in the first place.
And like the Rosetta Stone, those steles found beneath the waters of Aboukir Bay are inscribed in Greek and Egyptian, too. Who knows how many more archaeological gems will be uncovered at Heracleion?
The very name of the city is taken from that most famous of Greek heroes, Heracles — aka Hercules — whose 12 labours, from killing the Hydra to capturing Cerberus, the multi-headed hellhound that guarded the gates of the Underworld, captivated the ancient world.
Heraklion, Crete’s capital and largest city, is also named after Heracles, as was Herculaneum, the ancient Roman town that was buried under ash when Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.
It appears that Heracleion faded in importance in the later classical period, eclipsed by its neighbouring city of Alexandria, which became the capital of Egypt in 312BC.
Still, Heracleion lingered on, later under Roman control, until it slipped into its watery grave some time in the 6th or 7th century AD. What a thrilling discovery we have on our hands now that the sea has, 1,500 years later, given up one of its greatest secrets.
The ancient port city lies 20 miles northeast of Alexandria in the Mediterranean
Items including 16ft sculptures, gold coins and giant tablets are among some of the objects recovered from the ancient port city
One theory suggests a rise in sea level and unstable collapsing sediment combined to submerge the city
Explore the ancient underwater city of Heracleion
Dear friends,
This time “Psychology: Who’s Angry Now” by Piers Grimley Evans, from Speak Up # 193.
Bye for now.
José Sarto