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The story seems to be first broken in English by Ananova.

Swiss watch found in 400-year-old tomb

Archeologists in China are baffled after finding a tiny Swiss watch in a 400-year-old tomb.

The watch ring was discovered as archeologists were making a documentary with two journalists from Shangsi town.

“When we tried to remove the soil wrapped around the coffin, a piece of rock suddenly dropped off and hit the ground with a metallic sound,? said Jiang Yanyu, former curator of the Guangxi Autonomous Region Museum.

“We picked up the object, and found it was a ring. After removing the covering soil and examining it further, we were shocked to see it was a watch.”

The time was stopped at 10:06am, and on the back was engraved the word “Swiss”, reports the People’s Daily.

Local experts say they are confused as they believe the tomb had been undisturbed since it was created during the Ming dynasty 400 years ago.

They have suspended the dig and are waiting for experts to arrive from Beijing and help them unravel the mystery.

Stories like this are important for spiritual people so we can ponder the possibilites… and expand our governors.  Who made it?  When was it made?  How did it get there?  Is it a hoax?  Do some homework and come up with some of your own possibilites.

More information is available from a Chinese website in translation.

Si Qing of Guangxi on giant coffin tomb found strange, “watch” it clearly engraved with the “Switzerland” 2 words

Dec. 11 shooting of the giant coffin in the grave was found while the pocket-sized “watch” side, “watch” for a long strap, and not the same as ordinary rings.

 Is really incredible, Dec. 11, 2008, Shangsi County some time ago unearthed in the “concrete” coffin giant grave side had found a “watch.” On the same day, archaeologists and related CCTV reporter came to the giant coffin unearthed on-site visits, had appeared in such incredible.

On the same day, China Central Television and China Correspondent 2 Tonggu Research Association, Guangxi, head of cultural relics expert group, the former curator of the Museum of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region came to Mr. Jiang Tingyu Shangsi County, the county on Nov. 2 unearthed in the second half of the sarcophagus for Study, reported an interview.  11:00 or so, the study group reported that his party came to the sarcophagus unearthed at the scene, on-site inspection and surrounding environment, video, giant coffin was found (the smaller) unearthed a grave while there are about 5 kg of concrete (Giant By the coffin made of concrete).   In later dug up in that some pieces of concrete, concrete debris from the bottom suddenly fell off a metal items, fell down a rock face, the voice of the impact sent metal.  Inspection team reported that a careful look at the fall found a “ring.”

After identifying that this “Ring” is the bronze with the same general size of the rings, “rings” were the surface of the shape of a watch, clock and the minute hand points to 10:06, also has the edge as the wind-up watch on New Zealand.  Hand “ring” of a few in-house clean, Plum-shaped depression found carved patterns, which clearly engraved with the “Switzerland” 2 words, this is obviously a pocket-sized “Swiss watch.”   “Watch” for a long strap, and the general ring ring different.

Experts believe that if the objects used to “watch”, but also the local people did not autopoietic kind of “pocket” of the custom metal products.  And the world’s first to wear a wrist watch was born in 1904 (the other is in 1918), there are just 100 of the history of Swiss watches into China is the only thing for decades, with the sarcophagus of age Far.  If the items buried with the dead is not that strange to be able to buried in the sarcophagus Excavated grave side of the earth, and was later found that the probability is very small.  In short, this “watch” What is the age of the objects used for what, how and in the grave side of the earth, this is still a difficult to solve the mysteries.

On the same day, officers decided to Shangsi County heritage, to be shortly after the national experts who Shangsi giant open coffin, it together on the “watch” to identify and solve the mysteries again.

 

December 11, Guangxi Cultural Relics and Archeology of experts on the stadium’s giant coffin to carry out research, the China Central Television reporter next to the filming. 

Related link #1 (in translation.)  Note:  This is a different tomb from the same area.

Giant coffin unearthed in Guangxi dialysis unknown liquid, or a total of 2 for the tomb of the couple (map)

 The photo shows on November 29, a large number of unidentified liquid from the “concrete” Guan Zhong Kui effusion.  Xinhua News Agency issued

Comprehensive Xinhua News Agency, “South China Morning Post,” the news on November 29, the cultural heritage of China and the Guangxi Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology Institute experts rushed to the Shangsi County, Guangxi on October 15 Shangsi County found two bodies unearthed in the coffin for giant To deal with further study.   However, during transport, a coffin leakage took place, out of a large number of unknown brown liquid.

It is reported that in the Shangsi unearthed from the limestone, sand, made of glutinous rice mixed materials such as the “concrete” the Ming and Qing Dynasties era coffin A total of 2, a freshman small, it is estimated that the tomb is a husband and wife.

The morning of Nov. 29, Shangsi County Heritage Management 2 coffin will be transported to the County Theater Shangsi the house preserved for further research to deal with.  As the coffin is very heavy, with workers in the steel tube pad at the bottom of the coffin, took two hours, the coffin will push forward a little bit of room.  At this point, the smaller of the coffin at the bottom of the leak of a sudden a lot of unknown brown liquid, liquid weight of about 10 kg.  Expert analysis of the construction site using excavators dug in the mountains of this coffin, the coffin had an estimated impact; coffin from the nearly 2-meter-high places fell down from a possible fracture, so there have been leaks.

According to experts, these liquid leakage is estimated that soil infiltration of water into the coffin, the coffin inside the object will not be affected too, experts are currently on the analysis of these liquids, Kaiguan prepared to do so.

Chinese Cultural Heritage Institute, an associate researcher at Lianghong Gang analysis by the liquid leakage also revealed a very important message: the liquid does not smell, it is estimated that Guannei still remains intact.

Prior to this, the experts tried to use the medical equipment for the coffin to carry out perspective, in a clear Guannei Kaiguan the object and then make a specific proposal.   However, due to Guannei remains and other objects may be well-preserved, together with the leakage occurred in the coffin, it is necessary Kaiguan as soon as possible.  In the afternoon, the experts have an emergency return to Nanning, in order to link the domestic archeology, body protection, the protection of textile products, such as top-level collaboration Kaiguan experts to come.

Experts further confirmed that the seal, so the full extent of the good “concrete” coffin was found in Guangxi is the first time, are rare in China, an important research value.  (Source: Beijing Morning Post)

Modern Mechanix magazine had an article in March 1938 about another tiny watch.

 Tiny Watch Worn Like Ring

CAPABLE of running for 46 hours without rewinding, a tiny watch developed by a Swiss manufacturer is fitted to a band and worn like an ordinary finger ring. The watch features unbreakable glass.

 Apparently Rolex and LeCoultre both made finger watches in the 1950s.

LeCoultre Duo-Plan

18k Rolex Precision

Link to some info Swiss jewelry watches including a note about Swiss ring watches.

The Swiss jewellery watch

From around 1750 to 1850, the beauty of Genevan enamelwork was such that European watchmakers frequently turned to the city’s craftsmen. Through them, Swiss watches acquired an international style, and many bore the name of Swiss, English or French masters. Post-1780, the entire case back became a canvas for enamel painting, edged with a row of half-pearls. Genevan enamellers perfected a technique known as fondant, a colourless layer painted on top of the enamel. It protected the enamel but also enhanced and accentuated the play of light on the different colours.

Some late eighteenth-century workshops became specialised in jewellery watches for the Chinese market, a trade that continued throughout the nineteenth century. BOVET, in Fleurier, and later DIMIER, JUVET and VAUCHER, produced watches with a centre seconds hand and finely engraved movement, always in matching pairs as it was customary in China to make gifts in twos. The cases were richly decorated with vibrant glazed enamel, and edged with a row of half-pearls. 1780 also saw the return of the fantasy watch, a characteristic style of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The animal and vegetable realms inspired new models in the shape of butterflies, roses, daisies, peaches, pears, apples, oranges, strawberries, melons or walnuts. Others took the form of objects such as, but by no means limited to, baskets or musical instruments, perhaps a violin, lute or harp. Enamel-painted cupids alighted on heart-shaped watches set with pearls and rubies. Meanwhile, watches were being incorporated into other accessories, from snuffboxes and walking canes to perfume-spraying pistols, fans and opera glasses. Destined for a wealthy clientele, they were embellished with engraving, enamels and precious stones. Geneva was outstanding as a source of fantasy watches, although Paris, London and Vienna also produced some noteworthy pieces. Enamel was everywhere, in every hue and shade. Precious stones and half-pearls gave form to insects’ bodies and antennae, traced the veins on a leaf or underscored the edge of a dial.

Originating in the sixteenth century, ring-watches became newly fashionable after 1780. Oval or rectangular, their bezel was characteristically outlined with pearls and diamonds. Often the dial was set slightly off-centre, creating space for a visible balance, or for automata to enact a scene. Wristwatches in 1800-1810 would adopt the same configuration.

A Swiss ring watch.

After a parenthesis lasting from 1830 to 1890, when the watch was stripped of its jewellery aspect to fulfil a functional role, the fantasy watch returned with Art Nouveau. Flowers, branches and insects were portrayed in enamel then highlighted with precious stones. The counterpoint to their astonishing realism would be the Art Deco watch with its stylised motifs.

Here is an exercise from Four philosophical questions to make your brain hurt that I thought was an interesting check of my understanding of good, evil, moral and immoral actions.

Philosophy involves standing back and thinking - intensely and rigorously - about aspects of our lives that are at once ordinary and fundamental.

And when the surface is scratched, what you find below is extraordinary - or, rather, extraordinarily difficult to make good, clear sense of. Lying in wait are arguments that lead to, if not sheer lunacy, then bullets we’re loathe to bite.

So, with World Philosophy Day upon us, here are some pesky arguments to apply your minds to:

1. SHOULD WE KILL HEALTHY PEOPLE FOR THEIR ORGANS?

Suppose Bill is a healthy man without family or loved ones. Would it be ok painlessly to kill him if his organs would save five people, one of whom needs a heart, another a kidney, and so on? If not, why not?

Consider another case: you and six others are kidnapped, and the kidnapper somehow persuades you that if you shoot dead one of the other hostages, he will set the remaining five free, whereas if you do not, he will shoot all six. (Either way, he’ll release you.)

If in this case you should kill one to save five, why not in the previous, organs case? If in this case too you have qualms, consider yet another: you’re in the cab of a runaway tram and see five people tied to the track ahead. You have the option of sending the tram on to the track forking off to the left, on which only one person is tied. Surely you should send the tram left, killing one to save five.

But then why not kill Bill?

After finding my own answers, I decided that this exercise needed an added level of difficulty.  So here they are:

1a.  What if the five people that Bill could save have diseases caused by their own actions?  i.e. cancer from smoking, liver damage from alcoholism, etc.

1b.  What if the five people worked at Bill’s company and were unknowingly exposed to harmful chemicals on Bill’s orders?

1c.  In the case of the runaway tram, what if the one person on the track fork is your best friend?

1d.  What if the one person on the track fork slept with your spouse?

Current Western pop culture is limiting our ability to see beauty.  Paraphrased, someone once said enlightenment is the ability to see beauty in all things.  I personally can’t define enlightenment, but I know learning to see beauty is a skill that requires development and we should develop it.

Leonardo Da Vinci has a sketch known as the Vitruvian Man.

Although made famous Renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci, the figure known as the Vitruvian Man is actually named for the man who created him, the Roman architect Vitruvius. Vitruvius, a proponent of the Sacred Geometry of Pythagoras, designed temples based on the proportions of the human body, believing them to be perfect. This perfection, wrote Vitruvius, was due to the fact that the extended limbs of a perfectly proportioned human fit into both the circle and the square.

Wikipedia has a higher resolution photo of the sketch.

I want to take Da Vinci’s drawing a put a large red circle around it with a big red slash through the middle.  I object to the idea that perfect proportions apply to people.  But our modern Western consciousness has seized on one version of ideal beauty.  For females, it often involves being Caucasian, blonde, blue-eyed and skinny.  We are bombarded by these images.  When a heroine of pop culture gains a few pounds, she is lambasted in the pop media.

It makes us feel like we lack beauty, that we are not the children of a beautiful God.  We might have longer legs than average or shorter legs than average.  I know this since from a former hobby; setting up bicycles for racing.  Precise leg length measurements are important to prevent overuse injuries.  I know that my legs are shorter than average for a person of my height and of my torso length.  In fact nearly every one in my father’s family has the same proportions.  And this fact always used to bug me.

I recently took a picture of a friend of mine and when I showed it to her; she wanted me to delete it.  She said it made her legs look too long.  In fact she expressed a lot of displeasure at how long her legs were.  My friend is beautiful, both inside and out.  And I couldn’t believe that she was so focused on an aspect that she perceived as a flaw.  I’m sure there are people who would kill to have legs that long.

We have to learn to see the beauty in all proportions, colors of skin, ethnic backgrounds, and all types of other human features.  The beauty is not in the object we look at, but in the way we look.  This is a skill that must be learned.

There are other things that have beauty that I think are acquired tastes.  Impressionist art, Jazz, beer are all things that people do not take to right away.  They have to develop their eye, or their ear or their palate to appreciate the beauty.

I want all of you to start developing your beauty for people… all people.

This is a class I have taught several times. I thought I should write it down since I am getting tired of teaching it. This class is not for the beginning student. It is for someone with several years of study who hasn’t yet been able to achieve the techniques in the advanced classes.

I adapted the idea of bubbles from the class “Echoes of Consciousness” but I use the term in a different context. Paraphrasing, in Echoes, bubbles are used to describe the different lenses through which people see the world. These ideas started to coalesce after studying my own experiences with orbs and studying the class “Mind Projection“.

In this class, I am going to use the word bubbles in a different way. When we focus on something, we pour energy out of ourselves into the object of our focus. When we do this consistently and with enough energy it creates a bubble, a bubble of energy. Our jobs, our relationships, our hobbies, our spiritual practices are all bubbles of energy with more or less energy depending on how much energy we pour into them, and how skillful we are at focusing that energy. Of course, we must have energy to pour out. This energy comes from a proper meditation.

The main tools we use to direct our focus is our eyes, our hands and our thoughts. When all of these components work together, a bubble on energy begins to build. With repetition, enough energy and application of non-thought, this bubble of energy is becomes a bubble of consciousness. Watching television doesn’t focus energy. It is too passive. There is no engagement, no focus. A brain surgeon performing brain surgery focuses energy. His or her thoughts, hands and eyes are all engaged in the product of his work.

Non-thought doesn’t mean no thoughts. It means not thinking in words. Most people who live in the Western world think thought that consist of words. In many Eastern cultures, it is more common to think in images instead of words. A higher rung on the ladder of conscious thought.

The next rung up is to move to thinking with emotions. Love, anger, hate, fear… English unfortunately does not always have enough words to express to subtle details of the range of emotion without using a metaphor or description. Ancient Greek had more words to express a broader range of the kinds of love that exist. And this is still not enough words enough to express the full range of love.

Moving up a rung is thinking as energy. Using the mind instead of the brain. Thoughts become frequencies. The speed of though increases metaphorically from the speed of sound to the speed of light. The mind becomes dimensional. Consciousness expands. Thoughts become fluid. The barriers science assigns to this dimension no longer exist. Access to knowledge becomes virtually unlimited.

Energy movements are an important part of any spiritual routine. Energy movements have two general flavors, internal and external. Both are important. The technique for an internal energy movement called prana pull-ups is described on the supplement to the class “High Guard“. Internal movements are good because a person usually starts to get sensory feedback through their body after practicing for a while. External energy movements are described in the Eric Robison book “Bending God: A Memoir” (2007).

So, assuming you are a spiritual person that consistently meditates and practices energy movements, you create bubbles on conscious energy on the things you focus on. These bubbles get stronger, bigger, and more vibrant. If you focus on your relationship with a person, that relationships will grow and thrive. If you focus on your job, your job will grow and thrive. When you are focusing on your chakras during meditation, the energy bubble is growing there as well. Things that don’t get focus or energy in our lives will wither and fade until the bubble eventually bursts. That’s why we should have 3 or 4 or 5 things in our lives that we focus on instead of 100 small, weak, ready to burst bubbles.

The Technique

I designed this technique to be a bridge from beginning techniques of meditation and energy movements to more advanced techniques like “Black Box: Navigation” and “Eyes Wide Shut“.

I usually practice this technique sitting in coffee shops. When I am not on schedule, just relaxing, but I can’t actually meditate. First relax and calm your mind until you are working from non-thought. Then start using your hands, and eyes and thoughts to create snow balls of energy. Move your hands just like packing snow into a snowball. First imagine and then feel the energy accumulating in the space between your hands. We all have energy fields that extend up to 32 feet outside of our bodies. Focus on that energy and have the intention that it concentrates and intensifies inside your hands.

After a few practice sessions, when you can start to feel feedback in your hands from the ball of energy, stop using your hands. Just use your eyes and your consciousness to focus the energy. The next step is to start moving that energy ball. First let it bounce on the table in front of you, like a rubber ball. Then let make the ball of energy bounce all the way to the ceiling. After more practice, let the ball zoom around the room like a pinball bouncing off anything and everything.

After mastering the pin ball technique, let the ball move half-way into objects before it bounces. Start to examine your consciousness for the information feedback from the ball as it enters objects and people. Then bounce into walls and ceilings. Feel what is on the other side. Try creating a second ball.

People don’t usually notice these balls of energy. But once I was practicing this technique in a long narrow coffee shop outside of Chicago, and my energy ball bounced right through a woman buying a cup of coffee. She was at the counter about 80 feet away from me and she flinched, turned and looked right into my eyes. Somehow she felt my energy and knew it was me even though there were about 20 other people around me. Then she grabbed her coffee and ran out the front door. “Too bad,” I thought because I wanted to talk to her.

Others have thought about people simultaneously having the same invention or discovery. There have been studies done and papers written about it. Some have pondered the effects a man of ideas has vs. the effects a man of action has on the world. And some have even concluded that when near-simultaneous invention happened, it must have been “an idea whose time is ripe”. And someone else would have made the same discovery… but when a man of action is silenced, the future is changed.

I don’t agree. Ideas change the world. And the most interesting thing to ponder is, where do world changing ideas actually originate?

Of course some people believe the future is already written. See George W. Bush, addressing U.S. troops at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait (Jan. 12, 2008) and Bushisms.

“There’s no doubt in my mind, when history was written, the final page will say: ‘Victory was achieved by the United States of America for the good of the world.’

Note: The first news media article changed the quote. On purpose, I think. Bush actually said, “…when history was written…”. I saw actual video of the speech.

And having a US President believing in the rapture and starting a shooting war in Iraq isn’t a good thing. “The rapture is not an exit strategy”.

Newton and Leibniz simultaneously discovered calculus. I would have said that Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray simultaneously discovered the telephone except … (See my entry on The Study of History). And there are many other examples. An interesting philosophical side note is that the American patent system is “the first to discover” not “the first to file” as is most of Europe.

Statistical studies of patent applications show that discovery are are seldom simultaneous or near-simultaneous. I would argue that not all discoveries change the world in the same way. And using statistics as an analysis tool doesn’t really uncover Gaia affecting the consciousness of people. The Universe doesn’t really care if Amazon.com has a patent for one-click shopping or not.

Some ideas are important to the Gaia consciousness while others are not. The ideas that change consciousness and change the world are the areas of evolution where Gaia might work. These ideas help to evolve the Gaia consciousness. (See my entry on Dream Connections for the mechanism on how changing human thoughts changes the Gaia consciousness.)

Some discoveries and inventions that have changed the world are the discovery of fire, splitting the atom, and the Internet. The Internet is analogous to an additional nervous system for the planet, greatly expanding the spreading of news and ideas. And responsible for the creation of this blog.

(Movies are also a tool that spreads new ideas and thoughts to a great many people. See my entry The Last Mimzy is the best Mimzy).

I worked at a psychic fair just over a month ago and met Sue. Sue was a Reiki practitioner and we spent some time talking about spiritual topics. I suspect that she was very good at Reiki because whenever she moved her hands I could feel waves of energy that trailed off them; like spreading waves from a passing barge hitting the shore. I could even feel the effect from 40 feet away but it took a second after she moved until I felt the wave.

Sue also was selling magnetic magnetic bracelets from a leading manufacturer. I didn’t think at the time that wearing magnets would affect a person’s health, but I decided to be open minded and give it a try.

I haven’t studied the medical literature on wearing magnets. I suspect it says the same thing that the scientific literature says about psychic phenomena. When looking for psychic effects, if you believe in psychics, your study has a positive result. If you do not believe, your study is inconclusive or negative.

On a side note, I propose that science needs to borrow a page from anthropologists and study psychics in situ instead of in the lab.

I don’t normally get headaches but over the last five and a half weeks I have headache four times. I suspect that my eye glass prescription has changed a bit. Each time after putting the bracelet on, my headache was gone within five minutes. Scientifically conclusive, no, but interesting.

One thing I did not suspect was that wearing a bracelet would affect my dreams. I know there is no way to quantify this, and the general public would not be able to perceive the effect, but when I wear the bracelet to bed I had a much higher percentage of paranormal dreams compared to normal dreams. And my percentage of dreams recalled in the morning is much higher. In fact when I wear the bracelet to bed, I will remember the last three or four dreams I had before I woke up, instead of just one.

Here are some other blogs of mine that may relate to magnetic phenomena:

Gaia’s Magnetic Field
Deciphering the Crop Circle Code
The Cloud’s of Satun
The Magneurol 6S Advantage (Hint on this one: read the ingredients.)

Your homework is to investigate magnetic fields and see what you can find.

I think I will start a new tradition. On some of my posts, I will propose interesting questions but will not provide the answers. I may give some links to places to start research or propose possible solutions, but I will the legwork and the pondering to the reader. Here is my first homework question for you, dear reader.

Why did the Babylonians use base-60 math?

This question may not appeal to all readers since it is somewhat technical and esoteric. But I think the actual answer, if known, would be quite fascinating.

First, let me say, that today we use base-10 math. Base-10 math makes sense to use because we have 10 fingers. Our math is base-10 because we count to 9 before we add a second digit for 10. Computers use base-2 math. Only 0 or 1 (OFF or ON).

Here is an overview of Babylonian Math. Here is some information and ideas about Babylonian Numerals.

I am not a mathematician but I don’t see Babylonian numerals as strictly base-60. I see them as as a combination base-10 and base-6.

What would cause a civilization to count based on the number 6?