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News Briefs 20-10-2009

Noli nothis permittere te terere, Georgius!

  • Wall Street’s naked swindle.
  • The lost prestige of nuclear physics.
  • Cosmic pattern to UK tree growth.
  • Block of ice glows red hot.
  • When America showed up on a map, it was the universe that got transformed.
  • It all started 96 hours after 911.
  • McKinnon wins US extradition delay.
  • Feminism made women miserable.
  • Lost Greek city that may have inspired Atlantis myth gives up secrets.
  • New robotic hand can feel.
  • The amazing blob-bot.
  • Dinosaurs may have been wiped out by a meteor four times bigger than Yucatan.
  • Did Chinese ships discover America?
  • Scientists announce planet bounty.
  • Scientists watch evolution unfold.
  • Large Hadron Collider failure put down to time travel.
  • A very close call.

Quote of the Day:

Lack of money is the root of all evil.

George Bernard Shaw

  1. Et Nunc Aliquo In Toto Varios
    [And Now For Something Completely Different]

    I’m tired of constantly being critical, righteously or not. Time for some lighthearted creativity.

    While practicing guitar to rebuild my hands I was writing songs. I got tired of just writing plain old songs, Weird Al type spoofs, Picking On Floyd/PDQ Bach type music spoofs, and so forth, and decided to try something different. Very, very different. I decided to write a song in Latin. I knew I wanted to use the phrase Deus Ex Machina, and that’s all I need to start with. As per usual, the result was not at all what I would have suspected or attempted, except I long ago learned to stop trying to direct or second guess the creative instinct. And instinct it is, because it does stuff I’m clearly not capable of under my own self-direction.

    I haven’t finished music for this. I didn’t start out to write it for an existing tune, so the fact that it fits Blue Oyster Cult’s “Cities On Flame (With Rock And Roll)” is entirely accidental. If I had picked a song to use, that’d be high on the list. But I didn’t. I could also have put this in a blog for posterity. Fergitit. Art is not eternal.

    If anyone here happens to be handy with Latin, I’ll pre-empt you and tell them all, I’m most assuredly not.

    Enjoy. Or something.

    =====

    EX NATURA, NON MACHINA

    V1

    Deus ex machina, absconditus.
    Natura abhorret a tabula rasa,
    igitur te nosce, desunt cetera.
    Scienta est scala naturae.

    CH

    Qui docet discit, qui bono?
    Semper in veritate glorior.

    V2

    Salve veritate est sat sapienti.
    Scientia non habet inimicum nisp ignorantem.
    Veritate est inaestimabilis res,
    ipsa scientia divino potestas est.

    CH

    Qui docet discit, qui bono?
    Semper in veritate glorior.

    V3

    Infinitus est stultorum inter nos.
    Ignorantia veritate neminem excusat.
    Mortalem, te esse memento,
    non deus ex machina, absconditus.

    CH

    Qui docet discit, qui bono?
    Semper in veritate glorior.

    =====

    FROM NATURE, NOT THE MACHINE

    V1

    God from the machine, hidden from man.
    Nature abhors a blank slate,
    therefore know thyself, the rest is missing.
    Knowledge is the ladder of nature.

    CH

    He who teaches learns, and who benefits?
    I will always glory in truth.

    V2

    Saving the truth is enough for the wise man.
    Science has no enemies but the ignorant.
    Truth is beyond all price,
    knowledge itself is divine power.

    CH

    He who teaches learns, and who benefits?
    I will always glory in truth.

    V3

    Infinite are the fools between us.
    Ignorance of the truth excuses no one.
    Remember, you are mortal,
    not God from the machine, hidden from man.

    CH

    He who teaches learns, and who benefits?
    I will always glory in truth.

      1. Liber Avis
        [quote=red pill junkie]“Liber avis”!!! (free bird!) :-P[/quote]

        Way ahead of you d00d. Cogito: A blues based narrative song about a rock guitar player Johnny, whose girlfriend runs off with his guitar and his band, leaving him with nothing, so he gets an old acoustic and goes to his favorite bar to play the blues: Johnny B Blue. The first instrumental bridge, while he’s still playing in a rock band, is one run through of the opening part of Free Bird, with the slide, plus a couple run throughs of the end part chords A A, C C, D DD DD DD D D;….

        But since you rattled my cage:

        “Ab hic avis vos non commutabil – is…..
        [And this bird you cannot change]
        Dominus auxilior, nequeo commuto su – u – u – u – m…..
        [Lord help me I can’t cha – ya – ya – ya – ya – yange]

  2. Jameske wrote:
    The root of

    [quote=Jameske]The root of all evil…

    Lack of money is the root of all evil.

    George Bernard Shaw

    [/quote]

    So is having too much of it.And to live in want of it eviler still.

  3. “Wall Street’s naked swindle” was awesome!
    TDG Editors,

    Thank you for “Wall Street’s naked swindle”. I wouldn’t have found that article on my own, and it is AWESOME!!!

    Matt Taibbi was able to take a complex subject and explain it so a non-lawyer, non-accountant could get it.

    Thanks for supplying this to your readership!

    1-solo-adventurer

  4. Latin? Nah!
    My absolutely worst subject at school. Never got further than translating stupid statements such as “Three days later they halted at the bridge.”

    After 4 tormented years I spectacularly failed a special 1st year standard exam paper specially written for me, after which I was allowed to discontinue classes – to my great relief!

    Regards, Kathrinn

      1. Es fácil! 🙂
        It’s easier for us Spanish-speaking folks, since our words share the same roots 🙂

        And it can be really helpful for any aspiring student of Medicine.

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