Time Marches on

A while back a friend asked me what snotty was in Spanish. Although I didn't know the context or the gender I answered "mocosa". Only later did I learn that the sobriquet was given to a pet kitten that just so happened to always have a runny nose with constant sneezing (maybe she was allergic to cats).

Martial law is directly derived from the ancient Roman God of War, Mars. Originally Mars was the Roman god of fertility and a protector of farmers. It was only later that Mars associated with battle as the growing Roman Empire began to expand, and he came to be identified with the Greek god Ares. Because seeds where sown in the Spring, the month of March was subsequently named after Mars.

Genesis is the the first part of the Old Testament. One story (Genesis 38) is of the second born Onan who was assigned the task of primogeniture upon death of his older brother. Understandably, Onan balked and "spilled his seed on the ground".

It's amazing how birds, whether they're pets in cages or free in the wild, are messy eaters, especially those that are sustained by seeds. Personally I think a good name for these these type of pets should be Onan.

and the answer is ..

Recently I encountered a dilemma (actually it was a trilemma) and I didn't like the result of either choice. I could have made no choice (the third option) but like in all situations it would come up at a later date and the resultant would have been worse. I felt that this entire situation was a pons asinorum.

Now, I could said that this particular paradox was a case of Buridan's ass, but it (the situation) was more of a case of Morton's Fork. But since the results were pleasant it was more of a Hobson's choice.

I wouldn't say that this was a Catch 22, but since I got around the problem (by changing the parameters) I would say that it would be more accurate to state that Kobayashi Maru came in to play.

Just the Fax ma'm

Before telephones there was the facsimile, more commonly known as FAX.
Later, the wireless picture (sometimes referred to as radio FAX), didn't come into play until the late 1920s. However, not until the mid-70s, through a series of improvements, was the telephone finally used to transmit images.

It was the Japanese who made usage of FAX as a popular medium. The Japanese language uses thousands of characters. To use the adage of "a picture is worth a thousand words" simplifies the reason the device quickly came into general use in the Orient.

The advent of Email, computerized files and the usage of PDF has supplanted the requirement for facsimile transmision. It now can all be done from your personal computer (PC) without having to get out of your chair.

The Star of Life goes wheeaa wheeaa

The "wand of Hermes", also referred to as a caduceus, was carried in the left hand by the ancient Greek God signifying Peace. Hermes, along with being the messenger of the gods, was the guide of the dead (psychopomp) and protector of merchants, shepherds, gamblers, liars and thieves.

The caduceus is sometimes mistakely used as a symbol for medicine even though the symbol has no connection with Hippocrates. The error might have come from a printer's vignette that separated the chapters of a medical book by using a caduceus.

If one observes the logos of modern medical associations they will notice the correct usage of the Rod of Asclepius instead.

A cold long stare

Around the middle of August of each year the Earth travels through a spacial debris field and thus creates a meteor shower. This particular light show appears to come from the the constellation Perseus.

Perseus, in Greek mythology, killed the sea monster Ceto to save the princess Andromeda from certain death. In some versions he used the severed head of the only Gorgon sister that was mortal. Since Medussa could turn living objects into stone, her severed head was used to save Perseus' future wife, from the monster.

The Perseids upon reaching the Earth's protective atmosphere literally burn up, in an ablative manner, and yield an enjoyable show. Space debris "falls" from their orbit due to friction, but once traveling at high speeds in the atmosphere they burn because of pressure.

The question I have is; if they were immortal, where are the other Gorgon sisters?

Mirage, that's all you are to me

According to legend, Morgan la Fay was King Arthur's sorceress half-sister. In Italian, her name is Fata Morgana, which is also the name given to a special mirage observed in the Strait of Messina.

A mirage is an optical phenomenon, but a mondegreen is when the ear hears (aural phenomenon) a certain lyric in a song, and due to near homophone, yields thus a new meaning.

Although "Donuts make my brown eyes blue." is humorous, I always appreciate "There's a bathroom on the right".

Patois

It's amazing how technology, especially the Internet, affects how the written word, as opposed to the spoken word, is utilized. For example, FYI is an acronym that is different than FAQ, these are terms that are mostly used with text messaging, WEB pages or Emails.

It's almost impossible to keep abreast of all the "internet speak" as most of the items are not obvious. However, even though obscure, some terms are more appropriate than others. One of these is RTMF. This particular acronym has many variants but it generally conveys, to the recipient, the message that "I'm a bit lazy and I'd rather ask a question than read the answer".

Although not entirely technical, my favourite acronyn is TANSTAAFL. It implies that when it comes down to it, It's always a question of money. In other words, "you get what you pay for".

Rock me gently, rock me slowly - Part 3

It is generally attributed that Homer wrote the epic poem "the Iliad". Basically, it's a story of the Trojan war, with its many heroes and their many exploits.

At Lagrangian points L₄ and L₅, in the Jupiter-Sun system, there exist groups of asteriods that are called the Jupiter Trojans. These asteroids are broken up into either of two camps; the Trojan camp (L₄) or the Greek camp (L₅).

One thing you notice going down the list of asteroids is the lack of names of heroines of the Trojan war, and there were many. I guess that it's that it's a continuation of "the Cassandra effect".

Rock me gently, rock me slowly - Part 2

When two celestial bodies of vastly different masses, say the Earth and the Sun, attract each other there are five Lagragian libration points, in space, were gravitational and orbital forces are in equilibrium.

  These points are abbreviated as L₁ through to L₅.



L₁ to L₃ are in direct line with the heavenly bodies. Whereas L₄ and L₅, the most stable, are on a plain of sixty degrees leading and trailing the orbit of the smaller body. Bearing this fact in mind, depending on the purpose of the mission, one of the most appropriate places to position an artificial satellite would be on or close to one of these libration points.

L₁ and L₂ are being, or will be, utilized by a number of man made probes. The Gaia mission and the Webb Space telescope are some of the projects planned to take advantage of the L₂ libration point.

As L₁ to L₃ are unstable (i.e., it tends to drift) any craft would be require a propulsion system to maintain their position. To get around the problem of how much propellant will be carried, a Lissajous orbit (click on the magnifying glass, in the link, to get a good visual) is utilized to counter this particular requirement.

My guess is that with the price of fuel and the frequency of available service stations, that an alternative method of improving mileage had to be found.

TE - Rock me gently, rock me slowly

I can only assume that Andy Kim wasn't thinking about librations when he sang "Rock me gently".

Libration is derived from the Latin, which means scales. There are many types of scales but one of most accurate for weighing is the balance scale. Nowadays, the the balance scale is mostly seen as a blindfolded maiden holding in one hand the "scales of justice"

Although "Justice is blind", there are many examples were cases are miscarried.

Rock me gently, rock me slowly

The gentle rocking back and forth of the moon, over a given time period, is called libration. Even though, the front of the Moon is tidally locked to always face towards Earth, this phenomena allows an observer on Earth to see close to 60% of the lunar surface.

The ancient Greek Deity for the moon was Selene; hence selenology, the study of the geology of the Moon. Whereas her brother, Helios, was the personification of the other celestial body, the Sun.

Since the the second lightest and the second most abundant element in the observable Universe was first discovered using a mass spectrometer on sunlight, it's only fitting that it would have the name Helium.

Smoke gets in your eyes

One of the world's most recognized figures is the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci. The accompanying notes to this particular drawing, written in mirror writing, was made as a study of the proportions of the human body was based on the works of the ancient Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius.

Leonardo da Vinci's artistic works are many, the most well known are the "Last Supper" and the "Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo". The latter, drawn in sfumato, is also known as La Gioconda (Mona Lisa).

In collaboration with Luca Pacioli, a contemporary mathematician, da Vinci drew the illustrations of the regular solids in De divina proportione. The subject of this manuscript was mathematical and artistic proportion, especially the mathematics of the golden ratio and its application in architecture.

fe fi fo fum

Pi day is celebrated on March 14 of each year. Pi is an irrational number (its value cannot be expressed exactly as a fraction), represented by the Greek letter Π, is a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any circle's circumference to its diameter.

The Greek letter phi (φ) represents the golden ratio which is also is an irrational mathematical constant, with a value of approximately 1.6180339887. Unfortunately, the value of of the phi cannot be easily converted to a calendar date.

However, August 13th is a day that can be celebrated by a number of special people around the world.

A rose by any other name is just as sweet

Gertrude Stein wrote "Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose." The trick of this phrase is using the law of thricefold repetition, for emphasis of a particular point. However, a spiral is not a spiral is not a spiral.

One of the better known geometric forms is the Archimedean spiral, named after Archimedes, the famous ancient mathematician. This form is found in windup springs in mechanical toys and analog watches.
Another type of spiral, that is more frequent in Nature, is the logarithmic spiral. The best visual example of this type of spiral is the cut away section of the Nautilus Shell. A special type of logarithmic spiral is the Fibonacci spiral, which is based on the golden ratio. Many discussions have been made regarding artists having used in their works an approximation of the golden ratio in order to make it more aesthetically pleasing.

open the pod bay doors

HAL 9000, the most advanced computer at the time, has the pivotal role in Arthur C. Clark and Stanley Kubrick's, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The last episode in the movie (1968) has a spaceship and its crew heading to Jupiter. HAL is the on board computer that interfaces with the crew. They eventually realize that HAL is capable of error, and privately (in a pod) discuss disconnecting it. Although I am assuming, Deep Thought is more advanced than the HAL (after all, coming up with the ultimate answer is no easy task); HAL appears to overcome its handicap. I'm referring to its (assuming computers have no gender) hearing problem; why else would he have to read lips.

HAL is an acronym for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic Computer.

TE - Master of my domain

This catch phrase became well known after the airing of the Seinfeld television show. Rather than using an actual word or term, a euphemism is utilized.
In my opinion, the best euphemism regarding death is the parrot sketch by Monty Python.

TE - Tempus fugit

This Latin expression is generally attributed to to the ancient Roman, Publius Vergilius Maro (Anglicized form - Virgil). Usually inscribed on the face of sundials, this adage is to remind the individual that "time flies" and is irrecoverable.
Virgil is also well known for his twelve books of the Aeneid, the adventures of Aeneas from Trojan war to the landing in modern day Italy. Many years later the legend of Romulus and Remus evolved. According to the story, these two brothers fought and Romulus was victorious. The question I have is if Remus had won the fight, Would the city be called Reme.

TE - These go to 11

This is Spinal Tap is a cult movie of a heavy metal/rock band in which one of the characters, explaining his amplifiers, quotes "These go to 11".

This phrase has evolved to mean "taken to an extreme". In this case, the extreme is loudness of music which is the signature of the band. However Spinal Tap is no match for Disaster Area.

TE - For whom the bells toll

This is the title of an Ernest Hemingway novel (1940) that later became a popular movie. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an anti-fascist(Republicans)guerilla unit during the Spanish Civil War.

The Novel's title comes from a famous quotation of John Donne (1624); it goes like this:
"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee."


Tinnitus is usually described by sufferers as a perceived sound of a ringing noise. I just wonder if Quasimodo suffered from this malady.

TE - Titles explained - Kobayashi Maru

With each blog posting a title should help explain the subsequent text. However, readers of my blog indicate the title has nothing to do with the paragraph(s) that follow.
Within the Blog, links are placed in the text to, hopefully, clarify some of the more obscure references. This is more to appease myself as I don't want to appear too much in left field. On the other hand, the Blog titles utilize "lateral thinking" to get some pretty unique entries.

By the way, Kobayashi Maru means a "winning a no win situation". Just goes to show, "you win some, you lose a lot more".

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Easter Sunday is a holiday that celebrated by many Christians every year.
Unlike Christmas, which has a generally accepted assigned day, the date on the which the Spring holiday falls is calculated. Simply, the calculation (also known as Computus) is for the Sunday after the full moon, on or after the Spring Equinox. Accordingly, Easter can fall on 35 possible dates - between March 22 and April 25, inclusive.

Because the Easter Sunday is a movable feast, Mardi Gras (pseud., Shrove Tuesday), at the front end, also has variable date. At the back end, the Sunday that follows Easter is called "low Sunday" or quasimodo.

Quasimodo was also one of the main characters in Victor Hugo's "Notre-Dame de Paris". Also known as the Hunchback of Notre Dame, he was, no only deformed, but deaf as a result of ringing the Cathedral bells. I often wondered if Quasimodo suffered from Tinnitus.

These go to 11

One of the ways you can diagnose a subarachnoid hemorrhage is by way of a Lumbar Puncture (LP in medical talk - not Long Playing - that's music talk). This is more commonly known as "bleeding in the brain"

Now, this type of malady is a serious medical emergency and can lead to death (the ultimate seriousness) or severe disability.

Colloquially, an LP, is known as a spinal tap.

Tempus fugit.

There's a adage for daylight savings time that goes like this: "Spring forward and Fall back". The concept is controversial and was only possible when analog or digital clocks became of common use. Before that, sundials were one of the few means to tell time. They come in all shapes, orientation and sizes, but they all have one feature, it was a gnomon. The accuracy of the sundial is based on a variety of factors; such the shape of the gnomon, how it leans, the time of the year and the latitude.

Gnomom comes from the ancient Greeks meaning "to know". Also from the Greek is the prefix "a", which means "not". Thus the word agnostic, literally means "I don't know". Often this word is used in Religious context, it's use usually gets confused with another belief "athetisism".

Distinguishing these to concepts is difficult, but I believe that Henny Youngman said it best when he stated that "he used to be atheist, but there were no religious holidays". In turn, the ultimate agnostic was W. C. Fields. When he spent his last weeks in a hospital, where a friend stopped by for a visit and caught Fields reading the Bible. When asked why, Fields replied, "I'm checking for loopholes". Now, that's covering all your bases!

Master of my domain

King Phillip chases only funny Girl Scouts. That's the mneumonic that I was taught to remember the levels developed by Carl von Linné, in the mid 1700's, for the clasification of living things. Now I find out that Kingdom has been supplanted by Domain as the top tier for taxonomy. Since plants and animals are not the only items that make up "life", I suppose that a new classification had to be made up to accommodate the other things that make up living creatures.

Thus, a person's full taxonomic classification is :
Eukarya Metazoa Chordata Mammalia Primata Hominidae Homo sapiens sapiens.
( Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species, Sub-species )

It now makes more sense that Dumb King Phillip chases only funny Girl Scouts.

On the tip of my tongue

One of the symptoms of dementia, or Alsheimer Disease, is loss of short term memory. One feature of this phenomenon is when one cannot recall a familiar word or name or situation, but with much effort one may eventually recall the elusive memory.

Acquired Hydrocephalus also mimics this form of "presque vu". Meaning "almost seen" from the French, this term is the sensation of being on the brink of an epiphany. Often very disorienting and distracting, presque vu rarely leads to an actual breakthrough. Frequently, one experiencing presque vu will say that they have something "on the tip of their tongue."

My guess is that people suffering from any form of memory recall malady wouldn't appreciate l'esprit de l'escalier. They're too busy thinking of the appropriate word.

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

It doesn't seem to exist anymore or at least they're hard to find. There used to be bakeries that the moment you passed through the door you knew you be buying too much because of all the wonderful smells. To top it all off there would be a lagniappe, or baker's dozen, for certain items thrown in for "good measure". Nowadays, if you want fresh baked goods, you go to the "bakery section" of the supermarket and get pre-packaged item that is wrapped in plastic to "assure natural freshness", even though the item contains all types of preservatives. It seems that nowadays they subscribe to the notion that "nothing is free" and "you get what you pay for".

TANSTAAFL is an acronym for the adage "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch". Science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein popularized this saying in his novel "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress". In this book he demonstrates the concept of "nothing is free and one way or another somebody will pay for it". Even if something appears to be free, there is always a cost to the person or to society as a whole even though the cost may be hidden or distributed. I guess that's why one doesn't see much lagniappe around anymore, it costs too much.

I've been here before

I wasn't always intrigued by words that are unique and express some sort of situation, feeling or experience. This fascination came about when one day a work colleague asked me "if I ever experienced a feeling of already doing something". I retorted "do you mean déjà vu?" A sudden look of horror on his face and an almost instantaneous blurting out, "there's a word for it! I have to admit that I sensed a bit of schadenfreude when I robbed him of that unique feeling, that until that moment, was entirely his.

August 13th

Recently we were in a group and a friend of mine received a silver old fashion fountain pen for his birthday from his wife. Without giving a second thought I blurted out "that wouldn't be an appropriate gift for a left-hander". They all looked at me with blank stares and I immediately knew that I was in a right handed world, as no one understood what was said on what seemed out from left field. Compounding the original statement, a hard time was had explaining that the ball point pen, with fast drying ink, was the world's greatest invention.

It takes a another Leftie to appreciate the accommodations required of them to fit into the "normal world". Throughout the world there are many things and sayings that try and belittle those who are oriented in using their left hand, but none so much as trying to write.

"The hook" is the common way of explaining how Lefties write in most languages. This required in order to try and pull the pen, instead of pushing it. However, depending on the speed in which the ink dries, the result is almost always a smudged paper and ink stains on the writer's hand.

I hope my friend enjoys his new fountain pen.

The colour of the wind

It's much easier to say I suffer from Daltonism instead of saying "I'm sorry, I'm colour blind". With the latter, almost immediately one is subject to a barrage of test questions, Starting off with "what colour is this?". At least when you say Daltonism you receive some form of pity; because they usually don't know what the malady is. Mention that one has colour blindess and the questions start flying.

The Ishihara test, although not completly accurate, is a good indicator of the degree of colour deficiency. However, many times you won't believed when you say that all you see is a bunch of dots.

Well, Clarice - have the lambs stopped screaming?

When informed by a francophone friend that there was no common French word for "procrastination", I immediately said "There has to be!, what about cunctation?".

The great Carthaginian general Hannibal managed to keep the Romans, during the Second Punic War, at bay in modern day Italy for at least seventeen years. After crossing the Alps, his troops and allies fought and won a number of battles. The Romans confronted him many times, under many generals, without success until the arrival of Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus. Fabius was aware of the military superiority of the Carthaginians, and so when Hannibal invaded Italy, Fabius refused to meet him in a pitched battle. Instead he kept his troops close to Hannibal, hoping to exhaust him in a long war of attrition. Fabius was able to harass the Carthaginians, limiting Hannibal's ability to wreak destruction while conserving his own military force. At the beginning, the Roman populace was not impressed and gave Fabius the epithet, "Cunctator" (the delayer), as an insult. However, when this stratagem proved worthwhile, the title was then evolved to become an honorific one.

Procrastination may not exist, but I'm pretty sure cunctation does.

Parting is such sweet sorrow. ...

A nice thing about orderly succession in a democracy is that violence is kept to a minimum. The incoming administration tries to keep a civil tongue on the faults those who previously led. One of the few recourses that waning leaders have is their Parthian shot.

I was duly surprized that "W" didn't say anything sardonic at his last press conference of his successor. I guess he was too busy trying to explain his mistakes.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!

The crowns of the Christian kingdoms of Castile and Aragon were united, by the marriage of Ysabel (Isabel is the modern spelling) and Ferdinando II, they eventually "captured" Granada. When he surrendered Muhammad XII, better known as Boabdil, ended the last remnant of a 781-year presence of Islamic rule in Iberia, thus terminating the Reconquista

One condition of the treaty of Granada was the guaranteed religious tolerance toward Moors (Muslims). History shows that this particular facet of the treaty did not last too long.

In 1492, Spain's Jews were ordered to convert to Catholicism or face expulsion from Spanish territories during the Spanish Inquisition. Not long after (1526), Muslims were also expelled under the same conditions.

All this flashed through my mind as I watched a national leader state that his underlings "don't torture".

Go South young man ...

Although Genoese, Colombo (Columbus is an English name) sailed for Spain at the end of the 15th century (In 1492, he sailed the ocean blue ..) On his fourth voyage to the Americas he, and his crew, sailed a little further and encountered the Cuna Indians. Most of the Cunas live on a narrow strip of land on the San Blas Archipelago, a group of 365 small islands on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the modern Republic of Panama. Nowadays they are known for their reverse appliqué, called Molas, but in those times the Spanish were looking for gold and Silver and were desperate to obtain it. Some of the Cuna women wore gold amulets and when asked, they would point to the South and indicate that's where obtained it.

The Spanish later went South spreading their language and with the Treaty of Tordesillas, Portuguese became the second major spoken language of South America.

I wonder how history would have evolved if instead the Cunas pointed North.

Hole in the head.

Today's word is "Endoscopic third ventriculostomy". A fancy name for ramming a tube through your brain to punch a hole.

Granted it's in a hospital operating room, immobilized and you're under anesthesia. The operation takes about 90 minutes to perform, but the recovery is much longer than that, maybe 18 months.

I'm always reminded of Woody Allen saying "the brain! my second favourite organ". That little statement best describes the insidiousness of the oncoming symptoms of hydrocephalus. I'm just am glad that I live in a country that has socialized medicine.

Man, that was fast!

I wish Barack Obama good fortune his first 100 days in office. The real test of his character will be his first 1,000 days without his Blackberry.

What makes a man (or a woman) remembered? The hype of the day will only prove itself in history. Is it the impact that one makes on human society or is it the affect that an individual has on every day lives? There are many individuals who are remembered, but I feel that many are lost in the clutter that goes into our brain.

Most individuals can place the originator of E=mc² ( Albert Einstein - just in case you didn't know), but who first accurately determined the "c" part? Galileo proposed an experiment with lanterns but it (the speed of light) was a little too fast to be observed. The first re-creatable estimate of the speed of light was made in 1676 by Ole Christensen Rømer.

This Dane was perceptive enough "to think outside the box" (In this case, Earth) and thus allowed people subsequently discover other facets that affect our everyday lives and the lives of leaders.

Nowadays, the speed of light can be determined by lasers and/or microwaves.

The logo I use

As soon as they see anything with a prism an a white light diffracting into composites the thought of Pink Floyd ("Oh by the way, which one's Pink?"- Have a Cigar) immediately crosses their minds. The next thing that comes out of their mouths is "what is that album, again?" and then they consecutively blurt out "Dark Side of the moon".

In actuality, I was thinking of Sir Issac Newton's book "Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica" where he discusses his proof that white light was a combination of primary colours. I nod my head as I realize that I can't change a successful marketing campaign.

Bear with me as I collect my thoughts

I have been one that "lurks" the WEB and just keeps quiet and comments to myself, at least in Sotto voce.

Speaking of this (softly, of course), I was rather moved when I found out that Galileo's tale was Apocryphal.