Ostentation Is A Flowery Word

     

Tucson Weather Today

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"Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood."
--William Penn

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Did You Know . . .?

When a person has delusions that a stranger or a famous person is deeply in love with him/her, it's called erotomania.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day in 1939 (when I was two months old), from his home on Long Island, New York, German-born physicist Albert Einstein wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, urging "watchfulness and, if necessary, quick action" on the part of the United States in atomic research. Einstein, a lifelong pacifist, feared that Nazi Germany had begun work on an atomic bomb. But after the war, Einstein deplored the use of the deadly weapon against the population centers of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and he urged international control of atomic weapons.

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WORD FOR TODAY

rococo {ruh-KO-ko}
noun
1. a style of architecture and decoration, originating in France about 1720, evolved from Baroque types and distinguished by its elegant refinement in using different materials for a delicate overall effect and by its ornament of shell work, foliage, etc.
2. a homophonic musical style of the middle 18th century, marked by a generally superficial elegance and charm and by the use of elaborate ornamentation and stereotyped devices.
adjective
3. ( initial capital letter ) Fine Arts.
a. noting or pertaining to a style of painting developed simultaneously with the rococo in architecture and decoration, characterized chiefly by smallness of scale, delicacy of color, freedom of brushwork, and the selection of playful subjects as thematic material.
b. designating a corresponding style of sculpture, chiefly characterized by diminutiveness of Baroque forms and playfulness of theme.
4. of, pertaining to, in the manner of, or suggested by rococo architecture, decoration, or music or the general atmosphere and spirit of the rococo: rococo charm.
5. ornate or florid in speech, literary style, etc.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Peter James O'Toole

(2 Aug 1932 - 14 Dec 2013)

Peter O'Toole was an Irish stage and film actor. He achieved international recognition playing T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia, Becket, The Lion in Winter, Goodbye, Mr. Chips, The Ruling Class, The Stunt Man, My Favorite Year, and Venus. He holds the record for the most Academy Award acting nominations without a win.

Mary-Louise Parker

(born August 2, 1964)

Mary-Louise Parker is an American actress best known for her lead role on Showtime's television series Weeds. Parker has appeared in films and series such as RED, RED 2, Fried Green Tomatoes, Boys on the Side, The West Wing, and Angels in America.

Carroll O'Connor

(Aug 2, 1924 - June 21, 2001)

Carroll O'Connor was an American actor whose television career spanned four decades. O'Connor first attracted attention as Major General Colt in the 1970 movie Kelly's Heroes. The following year he found fame as Archie Bunker in the sitcoms All in the Family and Archie Bunker's Place. O'Connor later starred in the NBC/CBS television crime drama In the Heat of the Night from 1988 to 1995. At the end of his career in the late 1990s, he played the father of Jamie Buchman (Helen Hunt) on Mad About You.

Alice Jane Evans

(born 2 August 1971)

Alice Evans is a British actress cast alongside Glenn Close in 101 Dalmatians and with James Cromwell and Vince Vaughn in Blackball. She has since appeared in both television and film, including The Mentalist and Brothers and Sisters, as well as LOST, Grimm, and a turn as the villain Esther on The Vampire Diaries.

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As far as I'm concerned, I prefer silent vice to ostentatious virtue.
--Albert Einstein

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

Sayin' It Don't Make It So

     

Tucson Weather Today

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Astronomers discover new planets, 3 are habitable

The above is a headline published June 25, 2013 by FoxNews.com

Of course the Gliese 667C star which the planets orbit is 22 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Scorpius. 22 light-years is equal to a bit over 129 trillion miles. I repeat... just a little bit more than 129,000,000,000,000 miles. That's a long, long way from here.

It is reported by the scientists involved that the Gliese 667C solar system is strikingly similar to ours and the three planets identified as habitable are confirmed to be super-Earths: planets that have more mass than Earth but less mass than larger planets like Uranus and Neptune.

And that, I believe, is the result of many magnitudes of scientific guess work. After all, as Albert Einstein once said, "If the facts don't fit the theory, change the facts."

Fox News

Also, at gizmag

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TRIVIA

In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one has reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand, or even attempted to do so.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, June 27 in 1844. Joseph Smith, the founder and leader of the Mormon religion, was murdered along with his brother Hyrum when an anti-Mormon mob broke into a jail where they were being held in Carthage, Illinois.

Two years later, Smith's successor, Brigham Young, led an exodus of persecuted Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois along the western wagon trails in search of religious and political freedom. In July 1847, the 148 initial Mormon pioneers reached Utah's Valley of the Great Salt Lake. Upon viewing the valley, Young declared, "This is the place," and the pioneers began preparations for the tens of thousands of Mormon migrants who would follow them to settle there.

Details

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WORD FOR TODAY

pleonasm [plee-uh-naz-uhm]
noun
the use of more words than are necessary to express an idea; redundancy

Pleonasm is the use of more words or word-parts than is necessary for clear expression: examples are black darkness, or burning fire. Such redundancy is, by traditional rhetorical criteria, a manifestation of tautology.

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Tobias Vincent "Tobey" Maguire

(born June 27, 1975)

Tobey Maguire is an American actor and film producer who began his career in the late 1980s. He is known for his role as Peter Parker / Spider-Man in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film trilogy (2002–2007), as well as for his roles in Pleasantville (1998), The Cider House Rules (1999), Wonder Boys (2000), Seabiscuit (2003), Brothers (2009), and The Great Gatsby (2013).

Madylin Anne Michele Sweeten

(born June 27, 1991)

Madylin Sweeten is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing the role of Ally Barone on the CBS television sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond from 1996–2005. Her younger twin brothers Sullivan and Sawyer played her twin brothers Geoffrey and Michael Barone on the sitcom.

Henry Ross Perot

(born June 27, 1930)

Ross Perot is an American businessman best known for being an Independent Party Presidential Candidate in 1992 and 1996. Perot founded Electronic Data Systems (EDS) in 1962, sold the company to General Motors in 1984, and founded Perot Systems in 1988. Perot Systems was bought by Dell for $3.9 billion in 2009.

Julia Duffy

(born June 27, 1951)

Julia Duffy (born Julia Margaret Hinds) is an American actress from Minneapolis, Minnesota, specializing in character roles, best known as the spoiled rich girl and Dick Loudon's (played by Bob Newhart) inn maid, Stephanie Vanderkellen, on the 1980s sitcom, Newhart. 

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Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
--Mark Twain

NASA TV
   

Reverence, Einstein, And Creationism

     

Tucson Weather Today

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The modern-day Christian knows little or nothing about the actual doctrine of Christianity. And does not want to. Today's run-of-the-mill Christian wants to believe in his or her own personal belief, rather than what his or her Church preaches.

For instance:

When you speak of a man as being 'reverend,' such as The Reverend Jesse Jackson, what do you mean? Are you saying that Jesse Jackson is to be 'revered?' Worshiped? Godlike?

Consider this:

"He sent redemption unto His people; He hath commanded His covenant for ever, holy and reverend is His name"
--Psalm 111:9.

The word, reverend, is found only one time in the entire Bible of the King James Version and then it was attributed to God; and it is derived from the Hebrew word, Yare, which occurs several hundred times in the original Bible.

reverend
noun
A hypocritical older man who strives for social status and respect through assuming titles that are usually undeserved. He is a fraud and a fake. This person thinks he knows everything. Usually active in the church, and very visible in the community, always seeking the limelight. This man is always chauvinistic, married, and a womanizing adulterer whoremonger...

More about the word reverend


I suppose that in most (Christian) people's minds the title Reverend is derived from the word reverence -- and they would probably be correct in the modern popular-usage definition.

Which renders this entire opening text moot.

[Meaning of moot: Of no practical importance; irrelevant.]

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Yesterday, there being nothing of any particular significance to watch on television while the terribly dreary reportage of the presidential inauguration was being presented, I used that time to view a 48 minute Youtube video titled Albert Einstein- How I See the World, and I have only one regret for having done so, this being that the video was not so very interesting.

LINK

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As I have often stated, I am not an atheist, and in one sense it seems to me that I might even be labeled a creationist. This is because I know (intuitively) that biological life on Earth is meaningless (in the human sense of meaning,) in that biological life (both individually and collectively) comes into existence, endures for a short time, then enters the realm of death and finally extinction.

It is the folly of human beings in believing themselves to be nearly supreme, of great importance, or even at all relevant within the scope of the total (not the humanly knowable) universe.

There must exist, well beyond the limited sensory recognition of mere humans, alien lifeforms (or non-lifeform forces) owning capabilities beyond human comprehension or even human imagination. These entities (or non-entities) may well be responsible, purposefully or not, for the creation of what we call our known universe.

Is that not creationism?

Of course, that is nothing more than speculation on my part. But, so what? How does one substantiate the unknowable?

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WORDS FOR TODAY

reverend
Adjective
1. Deserving reverence.
2. Relating to or characteristic of the clergy; clerical.
3. Abbreviation Rev. Used as a title and form of address for certain clerics in many Christian churches.

reverence
Noun
Deep respect for.
Verb
Regard or treat with deep respect.
Synonyms
noun  respect - veneration - esteem - obeisance - regard
verb.  revere - venerate - respect - honor - honor - esteem

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Historical Clip

On Jan 22, 1973 the Supreme Court legalized abortion.

In a historic decision, the U.S. Supreme Court rules in Roe v. Wade that women, as part of their constitutional right to privacy, can terminate a pregnancy during its first two trimesters. Only during the last trimester, when the fetus can survive outside the womb, would states be permitted to regulate abortion of a healthy pregnancy.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Linda Blair

Born Jan 22, 1959
Age:  53 years old

Linda Denise Blair is an American actress. Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the film The Exorcist (1973), for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. She reprised her role in Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977).

Bill Bixby

Born Jan. 22, 1934
Died Nov. 21, 1993

Wilfred Bailey Everett “Bill” Bixby III was an American film and television actor, director, and frequent game show panelist. His career spanned over three decades, appearing on stage, in films and on television series. He is known for his roles as Tim O'Hara on the CBS sitcom My Favorite Martian, Tom Corbett on the ABC comedy-drama series The Courtship of Eddie's Father, stage illusionist Anthony Blake in the NBC crime drama series The Magician, but is perhaps best known for his role as scientist Dr. David Banner on the CBS sci-fi drama series The Incredible Hulk.

Piper Laurie

Born Jan 22, 1932
Age:  80 years old

Piper Laurie (born Rosetta Jacobs) is an American actress of stage and screen known for her roles in the television series Twin Peaks and the films The Hustler, Carrie, and Children of a Lesser God, all of which brought her Academy Award nominations. In 1991, she won a Golden Globe Award for her portrayal of Catherine Martell in Twin Peaks.

Sam Cooke

Born Jan. 22, 1931
Died Dec. 11, 1964

Samuel Cook, better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and influence on the modern world of music. His contribution in pioneering soul music led to the rise of Aretha Franklin, Bobby Womack, Al Green, Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and popularized the likes of Otis Redding and James Brown.

Cooke had 30 U.S. top 40 hits between 1957 and 1964, and a further three after his death. Major hits like "You Send Me", "A Change Is Gonna Come", "Cupid", "Chain Gang", "Wonderful World", and "Twistin' the Night Away" are some of his most popular songs.

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Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.
--Aristotle
  

To Sleep Or Not To Sleep

Tucson Weather Today

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It's been four days since I had a cup of coffee in the morning. And I feel like crap. The main reason I decided to stop my caffeine intake was an experiment to see if this would cure my worrisome inability to sleep at night. A maximum of four or five hours of uninterrupted sleep was all I had been able to manage for quite some time now. I suspected the villain was caffeine.

Sure enough, last night I went to sleep at ten o'clock and slept until five this morning. That's seven hours. The night before that was roughly the same. So it appears that the build up of caffeine in my body is indeed the culprit.

But I just feel completely out of it throughout most of the day. I know, yes I know, that a single cup of coffee would bring me back up to the level whereby I could push myself into giving a damn about whether I do anything or not.

Isn't that pathetic?

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Why do I think anyone else but me would care about such subjective revelations?

I don't.

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BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Albert Einstein

Born March 14, 1879

Died on Apr 18, 1955

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Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
--Albert Einstein

The Einstein Principle: Accomplish More By Doing Less

Tucson Weather Today

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In The Writer's Almanac I read that today (March 14) is the birthday of Albert Einstein, physicist and Nobel Prize winner who is remembered as having been a mathematical genius.

Albert Einstein March 14, 1879 -- April 18, 1955

According to the aforementioned article in The Writer's Almanac:

After the conclusion of his tour of the United States, in an interview with a Dutch newspaper, Albert Einstein said: "The vast enthusiasm for me in America appears to be typically American though and as far as I can judge I rather understand it: the people are so uncommonly bored, yes honestly much more so than is the case with us. And there is so little for them there anyhow. [...] So folks are happy when they are given something to play with and which they can revere, and that they then do with exceptional intensity.

Most of all it is the women, by the way, who dominate all of American life. The men are interested in nothing at all; they work, work as I haven't seen anyone anywhere else. For the rest, they are toy dogs for their wives, who spend the money in the most excessive fashion and who shroud themselves in a veil of extravagance. They will do anything that's in vogue and in fashion, and, as it happens, have thrown themselves among the throngs of the 'Einstein-craze,'

Does it make an outlandish impression upon me, the crowd's excitement here and there about my beliefs and theories, about which it doesn't understand anything? I find it amusing and also interesting to watch them. I certainly believe it is the magic of non-comprehension that attracts them."

A bit of an eye-opener... eh?

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Today, instead of spending time entering inanities into this blog as I usually do, I intend to buckle down and work on my ongoing project of self-publishing... after all, this would be considered as adhering to The Einstein Principle... "Accomplish more by doing less."

Right?

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Achievements worth achieving require hard work. There is no shortcut here.
--Albert Einstein