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Well, I am too Leoba, but it doesn't change the fact that math is the same. At least I can admire it.

Leoba we can start our own language and live in solitude

what about Body language universally understood. trust me

No, Jae, I'm sorry. Body language is not universally understood. If it is, I'm not a member of the human species...since it takes a lot of overemphasized body language for me to get anything...

No, body language certainly isn't universal. Men tend to mistake women's signals of friendliness for "something else"...

...and different gestures mean different things in different countries. If an American flashed the peace symbol facing the wrong way in the UK....oh the horror!!!

LOL yes

Wasn't there a thread about this on TORC? I have an infantile enthusiasm for that sort of threads...

Hmmm...must have been before my time because I don't remember it.

Btw nin, I do know what IKEA is, but haven't read the book you mentioned. I'm pretty sure I've heard of it before though.

IKEA? I know what that is, because we have one down the road from us. All well and good for folks who need furniture, not so good if you need to cross Wednesbury at the Weekend.

The Little Prince? Hmmm now this is a little more problematic... I've read "The Prince" by Machiavelli, (well a version of it anyway), and I remember "the Happy Prince" from childhood, some parable by Oscar Wilde.

Oh just Googled, and nope I've definately not read the Little Prince. Hmm seems I'll have to go to the Library. :mrgreen:

I suppose you folks should define what version of "Universal" is implied in this discussion. :mrgreen:

Quote:

Norse god of furniture

swedish, Din, swedish. They emphasize that very much, so don't tell them...

Nin, do you remember None_Elf_Ear? She's from Romania (and that's Europe from my point of view) and she didn't know about IKEA..... I was rather surprised at that, when I was talking to her, telling her about my shiny brand new book shelves I bought there.

Edain, why don't you just wait.......

Quote:

swedish, Din, swedish. They emphasize that very much, so don't tell them...

Ohhhhhh, so its a bit like talking about Finnish bacon

I just thought it was one of those viking cultures. My bad

Math is quite a good universal language, and atomic theory apparently. I believe that is what SETI uses to search for exterrestrial life. Of course if I wasa bug eyed monster searching for a new TV station and found some hairy ape sending his maths homework my way, I think I would ignor them too

Eruname just wait..... too (I have to send another copy anyway;))

Maths.... I am a universal illeterate, then.

And even music is difficult: my husband is a jazz-freak, and I just don't get the beauty of a Miles Davis improvisation. Maybe Mozart's music touches the hearts of all people in the world?

Mozard-Kugeln certainly do :mrgreen: I preferr Tchaikovsky

Math Then I'll definitely join Leoba and Jae

Breogán wrote:

Din,

Neither did Buddha, JesusChrist, Tao, Mohammed, Socrates or Plato knew of IKEA, The Little Prince, or the relativity theory...
I believe that regardless of this topic's title, we are not talking about "universal", but everyday western culture - even when it's not truly culture what we are discussing here, but icons of this western way of living of ours.
And within those limits, IMO and regardless of the small changes, football, coca-cola, McDonald's... are, unfortunately, world-wide known "values".

No it definatley says Universal in the title :mrgreen: but I guess the use of universal is not universal, particually by definition.

I am not convinced that brand names like Coca Cola or McDonalds is a world wide known value. Not if it is understood, or people know the taste. I do wonder what the symbol of it means to many people who are aware of it.

For many in the UK it means cheap nasty and unforfilling food, or brown fizzy liquid. If you have never tasted either, how would you know and what would it represent?

Din,

Quote:

I am not convinced that brand names like Coca Cola or McDonalds is a world wide known value. Not if it is understood, or people know the taste. I do wonder what the symbol of it means to many people who are aware of it.

Hence the "" I used for value. I'm not discussing whether they are good or not, something to be proud or, on the opposite, run from... my point is that unfortunately, Coca-cola, McDonalds and football are known to most of the population in this planet. Of course, if we embark ourselves in an expedition to find those who are not aware of their existence, we'll definitely find some who live happily in their ignorance, but that doesn't change the fact I was pointing at previously. I know these brands, and their taste, and I utterly hate them (esp. McDonalds), but I still know them.
I haven't gone into evaluating the quality of those products/icons I believe to be well-known across the planet, I've simply discussed their "popularity".

Dindraug wrote:

Math is quite a good universal language, and atomic theory apparently. I believe that is what SETI uses to search for exterrestrial life.

That's what I was referring to. Even though I don't understand complext math at all, I really appreciated what some people can do with it. The book Contact by Carl Sagan is an excellent example. Of course all of you who have seen the movie get the general idea of the story line.

Nin wrote:

And even music is difficult: my husband is a jazz-freak, and I just don't get the beauty of a Miles Davis improvisation. Maybe Mozart's music touches the hearts of all people in the world?

I was just speaking of music in general. You do like music right? Maybe not necessarily jazz (I only like some of it, but have never much liked Davis's fusion style...I do appreciate what he did though). I don't like Mozart all that much either, I find him boring. But basically, music moves people. It's vastly different, but it's something that can bring us together. I'm a musician and I've worked with people from different countries and we couldn't speak the same language. But we were able to sit down and play music together and that's something wonderful I think.

In a way it all comes back to math though. Music is based on mathematics. There are intervals and the break down of beats, not to mention sound waves are all based on physics. That sort of thing doesn't change when you cross a country border or an ocean....the physics of sound waves doesn't change when you leave this earth. Hence a universal language.

Tchaikovsky *purr* i love his music :mrgreen:

ah! a third member of my world.

Good choice Jae. Ever tried Mahler? I *sw0000000000n* for his music!

Does it count when i say he's my neighbour a street named after him joins mine. And i am sure i heard his i just can't think of any names right now.

Ah that's right...the street name. I remember now. Well, he wrote 9 symphonies (had sketches for a 10th) so you wouldn't remember the names for those. I personally recommend the 9th. I did a paper on it and it's quite wonderful. Das Lied von der Erde is quite good and I really like Kindertotenlieder....really I don't think you can go wrong with him.

Anyhoo...must stop hijacking this thread!

Hijacking, thats a universal constant I think