Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Category Archives: FREE ADVICE
Free Advice about Life, Universe and Other Stuff from Lawrence R. Spencer
HERESY
Republished by Blog Post Promoter
“Unless you make yourself equal to God, you cannot understand God: for the like in intelligible save to the like. Make yourself grow to a greatness beyond measure, by a bound free yourself from the body; raise yourself above all time, become Eternity; then you will understand God. Believe nothing is impossible for you, think yourself immortal and capable of understanding all, all arts, all sciences, the nature of every living being. Mount higher than the highest height; descend lower than the lowest depth. Draw into yourself all sensations of everything created, fire and water, dry and moist, imagining that you are everywhere, on earth, on the sea, in the sky, that you are not yet born, in the maternal womb, adolescent, old, dead, beyond death. If you embrace in your thought all things at once, times, places, substances, qualities, quantities, you may understand God.” ~ Giordano Bruno from his “Egyptian Reflection of the Universe of the Mind” ~ 1569
_______________________________________
Giordano Bruno (1548 – February 17, 1600), born Filippo Bruno, was an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, mathematician, poet, and astrologer.He is best known for his cosmological theories, which went even further than the then-novel Copernican model: while supporting heliocentrism, Bruno also correctly proposed that the Sun was just another star moving in space, and claimed as well that the universe contained an infinite number of inhabited worlds populated by other intelligent beings. Beginning in 1593, Bruno was tried for heresy by the Roman Inquisition on charges including denial of the Trinity, denial of the divinity of Christ, denial of virginity of Mary, and denial of Transubstantiation. The Inquisition found him guilty, and in 1600 he was burned at the stake.
BE BEAT: TALK LIKE A BOHEMIAN HIPSTER
Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Plenty of phrases from the first self-described hipster generation have lasted into modern conversation: people still get bent out of shape, annoying people bug us and muscular guys are still built, just to scan the b-words. Here are 26 words and phrases that don’t get much use today, but are worth sneaking into conversation.
1. A shape in a drape
A well-dressed person. “Usually she just wears jeans, but she sure is a shape in a drape in that dress.”
2. Bright disease
To know too much. “He has bright disease. Make sure he doesn’t rat us out.”
3. Claws sharp
Being well-informed on a number of subjects. “Reading Mental Floss keeps your claws sharp.”
4. Dixie fried
Drunk. “It’s Friday and the eagle flies tonight. Let’s go get dixie fried.”
5. Everything plus
Better than good-looking. “He wasn’t just built, he was everything plus.”
6. Focus your audio
Listen carefully. “Shut your trap and focus your audio. This is important.”
7. Gin mill cowboy
A bar regular. (A gin mill is a bar.) “Cliff Clavin was the _flossiest gin mill cowboy of all time.”
8. Hanging paper
Paying with forged checks. “I hope that chick who stole my purse last week goes to jail for hanging paper.”
9. Interviewing your brains
Thinking. “I can see you’re interviewing your brains, so I’ll leave you alone.”
10. Jungled up
Having a place to live, or specific living arrangements. “All I know is that he’s jungled up with that guy he met at the gin mill last month.”
11. Know your groceries
To be aware, or to do things well. (Similar to Douglas Adams’ “know where your towel is.”) “You can’t give a TED Talk on something unless you really know your groceries.”
12. Lead sled
A car, specifically one that would now be considered a classic model. “His parents gave him their old lead sled for his sixteenth birthday.”
13. Mason-Dixon line
Anywhere out of bounds, especially regarding personal space. “Keep your hands above the Mason-Dixon line, thanks.”
14. Noodle it out
Think it through. “You don’t have to make a decision right now. Noodle it out and call me back.”
15. Off the cob
Corny. “Okay, some of this old Beat slang is kinda off the cob.”
16. Pearl diver
A person who washes dishes. “I’m just a pearl diver at a greasy spoon, but it’s a job.”
17. Quail hunting
Picking up chicks. “I’m going quail hunting and you’re my wingman.”
18. Red onion
A hole in the wall; a really crappy bar. “I thought we were going somewhere nice but he just took me to the red onion on the corner.”
19. Slated for crashville
Out of control. “That girl’s been in college for five minutes and is already slated for crashville.”
20. Threw babies out of the balcony
A big success; interchangeable with “went down a storm.” “I was afraid the party would suck, but it threw babies out of the balcony.”
21. Used-to-be
An ex, a person you used to date. “I ran into my used-to-be in Kroger’s and I looked terrible.”
22. Varicose alley
The runway in a strip club. “Stay in school or you’ll be strutting varicose alley, girls.”
23. Ways like a mowing machine
An agricultural metaphor for impressive sexual technique, from the song “She’s a Hum Dinger” by Buddy Jones. “She’s long, she’s tall / She’s a handsome queen / She’s got ways like a mowing machine.” (Let us know if any of you ever successfully pull this one off in conversation.)
24. X-ray eyes
To understand something, to see through confusion. “That guy is so smart. He’s got x-ray eyes.”
25. Yard
A thousand dollars. “Yeah, it’s nice, but rent is half a yard a week. Let’s jungle up somewhere else.”
26. Zonk on the head
A bad thing. “It stormed all night and we lost power, but the real zonk on the head was when hail broke the bedroom window.”
These were collected from Straight From the Fridge, Dad: A Dictionary of Hipster Slang by Max Décharné and A Historical Dictionary of American Slang. The first is exceptional in its completeness and worth purchasing if you love dictionaries, and the second is free online and easily searchable. Try them both!
Read the full text here: http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/141912#ixzz26iRs1Nlk
–brought to you by mental_floss!
–brought to you by mental_floss!
ESSENCE OF YOU
Republished by Blog Post Promoter
es·sence (
s
ns)
n.
1. The intrinsic or indispensable properties that serve to characterize or identify something.
2. The most important ingredient; the crucial element.
3. The inherent, unchanging nature of a thing or class of things.
4.
a. An extract that has the fundamental properties of a substance in concentrated form.
b. Such an extract in a solution of alcohol.
c. A perfume or scent.
5. One that has or shows an abundance of a quality as if highly concentrated: a neighbor who is the essence of hospitality.
6. Something that exists, especially a spiritual or incorporeal entity.
[Middle English essencia and French essence, both from Latin essentia, from esse, to be, from the presumed present participle *ess
ns, *essent- (on the model of differentia, difference, from differns, different-, present participle of differre, to differ), created to translate Greek ousi
(from ousa, feminine present participle of einai, to be); see es- in Indo-European roots.]
ns, *essent- (on the model of differentia, difference, from differns, different-, present participle of differre, to differ), created to translate Greek ousi (from ousa, feminine present participle of einai, to be); see es- in Indo-European roots.]COMPUTER GODDESS
Republished by Blog Post Promoter
As “science” has become the unofficial “religion” of Western “civilization” in the 21st Century it is only right and fitting that we should create aesthetic images and mythology about the “divinities” of science. And, as our civilization, and perhaps our entire universe, is manipulated by computer programming it is only fitting that we worship the “Goddess of Computers”.
Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace (née Byron; 10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852) was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s early mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognised as the first algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine. As a result, she is often regarded as the first computer programmer. Ada Lovelace was the only legitimate child of the poet George Lord Byron and his wife Anne Isabella Milbanke (“Annabella”), Lady Wentworth.
As a teenager, her mathematical talents led her to an ongoing working relationship and friendship with fellow British mathematician Charles Babbage, also known as ‘the father of computers’, and in particular, Babbage’s work on the Analytical Engine. Lovelace first met him in June 1833, through their mutual friend, and her private tutor, Mary Somerville. Between 1842 and 1843, Ada translated an article by Italian military engineer Luigi Menabrea on the engine, which she supplemented with an elaborate set of notes, simply called Notes. These notes contain what many consider to be the first computer program—that is, an algorithm designed to be carried out by a machine.
