Death of Hypatia®

Category: Blog

  • WIBCI Post #103

    WIBCI

    WIBCI we understood the origin of IDIOMS?

    An Idiom is defined by Merriam-Webster as:

    ˈi / dē / əm / n. : an expression in the usage of a language that has a meaning that cannot be understood from the combined meanings of its elements (such as up in the air for “undecided”)

    Wikipedia describes it as ‘a phrase or expression that largely or exclusively carries a figurative or non-literal meaning, rather than making and literal sense. Categories as formulaic language, an idiomatic expression’s meaning is different from the literal meanings of each word inside it…..In English alone there are an estimated 25,000 idiomatic expressions.

    In other words, idioms are phrases that a group understands as having meaning that is not obvious in the words themselves.

    So you get what idioms mean, but often we don’t know the origin of the idiom itself. Things that you hear and immediately comprehend the speakers meaning and may even say yourself, but something a foreign exchange student would need explained.

    For example per Nedhardy.com:

    Cat Got Your Tongue?

    This odd little gem likely comes from the 18th century and has two potential sources—both unsettling. One theory suggests it refers to the cat-o’-nine-tails, a whip used by the British Navy, leaving sailors speechless from pain. Another claims it stems from ancient Egypt, where liars and blasphemers had their tongues cut out and fed to cats.

    Over the next few days notice if you say/hear/overhear/read an idiom and see if you understand WHY it means what it means.… more “WIBCI Post #103”

  • Know Thyself #103

    Know Thyself:

    My newest favorite quote is:

    ‘The more you know,
    the more you see.’

    – Aldous Huxley

    I believe I had heard about it before now but it wasn’t until recently that I started to think about why I like this quote. Obvious reasons were:

    • It makes you think
    • I believe that ‘The more you know’ means the more you have thought about your thoughts, the clearer you can see the world for what it is. In my mind, a.k.a./= Wisdom
    • Aldous Huxley who said this was also the author of Brave New World; a book that had a profound impact on me

    But after nerdily looking into the quote, I liked it more when, according to topessaywriting.org on May 10, 2023*:

    ‘Huxley came up with the remark after losing his vision and embarking on a journey to understand how humans see.’

    So add this to the list:

    • Quote was uttered AFTER the philosopher, writer, ethicist, and scientist became blind and: ‘embarking on a journey to understand how humans see.’

    I read on…..:

    ‘The remark implies that in order for individuals to see properly, they must also thinkclearly. According to Huxley’s theory, sight and cognition cannot be separated. Through combing the three aspects: sensation, selection, and perception, one is able to make sense of objects within (‘objects within is maybe a mistype of ‘world around us’ maybe?), thus making Huxley’s formula simple but lucid. The statement shows that once you have an understanding of different things you get to realize deeper aspects of those things, thus: beyond what the human eye can see, since you will have a different perspective due to your high(tend?) knowledge level…. it shows knowledge has great power to help people in understanding things which may at times appear complicated or hidden.*

    So this amazing thinker took a situation that would have broken most people’s spirit and made lemonade?! He discovered that NOTICING more increases one’s capacity for WISDOM.

    So in essence they are saying that Noticing allows you to know, which in turn allows you to see, which in turn allows you to notice, which allows you to know, which allows you to see, which allows you to notice…..

     

    Damn.

     

     

     

    *Topessay.org references: Lester, P.M. (2014), Visual Communication: Images with messages, Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning Aldous Huxley

     

    … more “Know Thyself #103”

  • WIBCI Post #102

    WIBCI This didn’t happen?

    Recently on my morning walk with the dog in the cemetery, I saw a woman who was also walking her dog. Not unusual.

    What was exceptional was when she walked to a parked car, got in the front with the dog, and a second woman and a child in a bathing suit emerged from the backseat. The woman bathed the toddler with a wash cloth and water from the spicket used to fill watering cans for the flowers of the dearly departed.

    It was 40 degrees out.… more “WIBCI Post #102”

  • Know Thyself #102

    Know Thyself through LYRICS:

    ‘What I Am’ written by Edie Brickell and Kenny Withrow and recorded by Edie Brickell & New Bohemians:

    I’m not aware of too many things, I know what I know, if you know what I mean
    Philosophy is the talk on a cereal box
    Religion is the smile on a dog
    I’m not aware of too many things, I know what I know, if you know what I mean, d-doo yeah

    Shove me in the shallow waters, before I get too deep

    What I am is what I am, Are you what you are or what?
    What I am is what I am, Are you what you are, or?

    Oh, I’m not aware of too many things, I know what I know, if you know what I mean

    Philosophy is a walk on the slippery rocks
    Religion is a light in the fog
    I’m not aware of too many things, I know what I know, if you know what I mean, d-doo yeah

    Shove me in the shallow water before I get too deep

    What I am is what I am, Are you what you are or what?
    What I am is what I am, Are you what you are or what?
    (repeats)

    Don’t let me get too deep
    (repeats)

    Shove me in the shallow water before I get too deep
    (repeats)

    What do YOU think the song is about?

    What do you think they meant by: ‘Philosophy is a walk on slippery rocks’ or that ‘Religion is the smile on a dog’? Do YOU agree?

     

    Are YOU what YOU are, or what?

     … more “Know Thyself #102”

  • WIBCI Post #101

    WIBCI if we put real thought into Gift Giving?

    What was the worst gift YOU ever Gave?

    What is the best gift YOU ever GAVE?

    Which one cost more?

    Which one did you spend more time conceiving?

     … more “WIBCI Post #101”

  • Know Thyself #101

    Know Thyself

    I’ve spent a considerable amount of time around children recently and I’ve found that my face hurts. I’ve spent an increased amount of time smiling, making faces, and over over-exaggerated expressions. I’ve also found myself laughing more often. I’ve thought about this because my facial muscles, specifically in the cheek area, are sore. It pleases me to think that around non-adults I find myself happier; yet at the same time I’m saddened that apparently my smiling muscles are out of shape.

    Try this: Close your eyes and scan your body for sore muscles. Do your forearms hurt from making something? Quads sore from swatting? Hands hurt from writing?

    Or, shoulders hurt from stressing?… more “Know Thyself #101”

  • WIBCI Post #100

    WIBCI we were more GRATEFUL?

    I know the word is thrown around a lot by many annoying people, but I believe good vibes beget good vibes.

    If you find it hard to find something to be grateful for in this toilet bowl of a world, here is one on me:

     

    Be grateful you don’t have Intractable Hiccups.

     

    According to Wikipedia, a HICCUP is: an involuntary contraction (myoclonic jerk) of the diaphragm that may repeat several times per minute. The hiccup is an involuntary action involving a reflex arc. Once triggered, the reflex causes a strong contraction of the diaphragm followed about a quarter of a second later by closure of the epiglottis, a structure inside of the throat, which results in the “hic” sound.

    Hiccups can occur in humans at any age, men and women equally, even in utero. Hiccups can also affect rats, cats, dogs, horses, and rabbits. Hiccups normally resolve themselves, but we are not without many ‘home remedies’ like: being scared, headstands, drinking a glass of water upside-down, breathing into a bag, eating  peanut butter, sugar on or under the tongue, and my go to: drinking a glass of water after dropping a lit match in it. But medical attention can be necessary for ‘chronic’ hiccups. Intractable Hiccups are hiccups that last longer than a month. Can you imagine? Charles Osbourne can. This Iowa man hiccuped for 68 years. They started in 1922 when he was lifting a pig to be slaughtered, dropped it and fell to the ground. Doctors believes he popped a pin size blood vessel in his brain that inhibits hiccups. Regardless, the Guinness Book record holder hiccuped 20-40 times a minute or an estimated 430 million times before they just stopped in 1990 when he was 96 years old.

    He died when he was 97.

    Be grateful you don’t have Intractable Hiccups.

     … more “WIBCI Post #100”

  • Know Thyself #100

    Know Thyself

    After writing 200 daily blog posts (including 2x’s a day for the first few weeks), I now know myself well enough to know that for the next 200, I wish to write them every other day.… more “Know Thyself #100”

  • WIBCI Post #99

    WIBCI the brightest minds of our time thought KNOWLEDGE was worth dying for?

    According to Living the French Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment S1E3:

    “One book embodied the project of the Enlightenment more than any other. It was called the Encyclopedia. This was a massive project. The Encyclopedia would run to 28 volumes: 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of illustrations. It took over 20 years to complete, from 1751 into the 1770’s. Encyclopédie was the work of at least 139 authors and 66 artists; including; Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and had over 72,000 entries.”

    That is A LOT of authors, a boat load of artists, and two decades is a long time. Sick persistence. Crazy if you think about it.

     

    Want to know what was crazier?

     

    “The Encyclopedia had ambitious goals. If you look up the word ‘encyclopedia’, in the E volume, you would learn that this book aimed to ‘collect all the knowledge scattered over the face of the earth, to transmit this to those who will come after us, so that our children, by becoming more educated, may at the same time become more virtuous and happier’. But, this attempt to systematize knowledge on behalf of human progress was also illegal.”

    1. Crazier cause that this massive project was FOR POSTERITY. Could you imagine 205 authors and artists coming together in 2025 for nothing more than the fulfillment of future generations, aka, zero chance of movie/reality TV deal, no royalties, and no credit/subscribers/likes/fans/attention. They believed new knowledge could bring about progress and improve society.
    2. Crazier still cause not only are none of the over 200 people spending multiple decades of their lives on a project for zero financial return, but you could go to jail y’all. Not just any jail, but sixteenth century French Bastille jail…. where dying isn’t odd. The Encyclopedia’s main editor, Diderot, had already served time in prison for things he wrote. Not to mention the Encyclopedia was full of political/religious snubs; under Eucharist all that is written was the cross reference: (see Cannibalism). Therefore, all 72,000 entries had to be written in secret, smuggled out of France, published secretly in Switzerland, and smuggled back into France and throughout Europe.

    Can you imagine risking your life for the good of humanity and zero personal gain? Can you imagine anyone? Would be cool if…… more “WIBCI Post #99”

  • Know Thyself #99

    Know Thyself through CONSIDERATION:

    Time:

    In YOUR opinion, do you arrive:

    • always early
    • impeccably on time
    • always late

    In YOUR FRIENDS/FAMILY’S opinion, can they expect you:

    • inappropriately early
    • impeccably on time
    • so late they lie to you per start times

    What do YOU think this says about you?… more “Know Thyself #99”

  • WIBCI Post #98

    WIBCI INDIVIDUALITY were championed more?

    Next time you are near/in traffic or a parking lot, notice the color of the cars. I’ve noticed this for a while and can report that the following appears to be true North/South/East and West of the US: 95% of all cars are either White, Black, Grey/Silver, Red, or Dark Blue, with the vast majority being White, Black, or Grey/Silver. It is numbing once you begin to notice.

    I read a book that was published a few decades ago, on the subject of being aware of the world around you.  One of the ‘exercises’ was to look for sunrise beige cars. This proved to be an excellent lesson in how narrow our notice can be. But today this doesn’t work. Apparently all car manufacturers are taking a page out of Teslala’s book and reducing our choices in car colors to 4. Cars used to be little microcosms of YOU, individual and unique. Are we being commercialized into robot consumers with no personality?

    I saw someone driving an Orange car today, I instantly liked her.

    What do YOU think?… more “WIBCI Post #98”

  • Know Thyself #98

    Know Thyself through MONEY:

    If I won a monster lottery, I would give away 4/5ths of it. Anyone who knows me wouldn’t think twice about that statement. I don’t feel that way because I want to be seen as a saint of philanthropy, in fact, I wouldn’t want anyone to know. There are two reasons why I would give most of it away:

    • I bet it feels pretty good to give money away
    • Money seems to make people dickheads
    … more “Know Thyself #98”

  • WIBCI Post #97

    WIBCI we knew the History of our Holidays?

    Per Wikipedia: Halloween, aka All Hallows’ Eve, aka All Saints’ Eve, is a celebration observed in many countries on 31st of October, the beginning of the observance of Allhallowtide, the time in the Christian liturgical year dedicated to remembering the dead, including saints(hallows), martyrs, and all the faithful departed. In popular culture, Halloween has become a celebration of horror and is associated with the macabre and the supernatural.

    One theory holds that many Halloween traditions were influenced by Celtic harvest festivals and believed to have pagan roots. Irish and Scottishimmigrants brought many Halloween customs to North America in the 19th century, and through American influence, various Halloween customs spread to other countries by the late 20th and early 21st century.

    The word Halloween or Hallowe’en comes from the Lowland Scots form of All Hallows’ Eve (the evening before All Hallows’ Day): even is the Scots term for ‘eve’ or ‘evening’, and is contracted to e’en or een; so (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en became Halloween.

    More saints than days in the year, in 835ce November 1st became ‘All Saints Day’. The Allhallowtide custom of baking and sharing soul cakes for all christened souls has been suggested as the origin of trick-or-treating.  As early as the 15th century groups of poor people, often children, would go door to door during Allhallowtide, collecting soul cakes in exchange for praying for the dead, especially the souls of the givers’ friends and relatives. This was called “souling”. In the Middle Ages Christian minister Prince Sorie Conteh linked the wearing of costumes to the belief in vengeful ghosts: “It was traditionally believed that the souls of the departed wandered the earth until All Saints’ Day, and All Hallows’ Eve provided one last chance for the dead to gain vengeance on their enemies before moving to the next world. In order to avoid being recognized by any soul that might be seeking such vengeance, people would don masks or costumes.

     

    … more “WIBCI Post #97”

  • Know Thyself #97

    Know Thyself through DREAMS:

    Are you the kind of person why remembers their dreams? I was told as a kid that you can remember your dreams in the morning until you touch/rub your head and the best thing you can do is immediately write down what you remember. Per Wikipedia: Freud believed dreams were the window to the unconscious mind; ‘serving as a means to fulfill repressed wishes and desires. …containing both manifest content (the literal storyline) and latent content (the hidden psychological meaning) that can be interpreted to gain insight into a person’s inner thoughts and conflicts. I have recurring nightmares and dreams. In the nightmares I’m walking on a college campus when a fellow classmate asks me where I was for the final exam that has now concluded. From here there is racing across a confusing campus, trying to find a classroom whose number and location have eluded me, I cannot remember my locker combination, and sometimes find myself not wearing any clothes. This can easily be interpreted as an anxiety dream and often happen before I’m to do something important.

    My recurring dream involves me in a wide-open field. When I run really fast I can jump into the air and ‘fly’. Maybe flying isn’t the right verb, it is more like bounding. The faster I run, the further and higher I soar horizontally with arms outstretched like wings on an airplane. I control the speed, altitude, spins, turns, dips and dives before gently returning my feet to the ground where, still running, I can leap once again into the air. I float controlling my altitude, trajectory, and speed. It feels amazing….free. I think these are my potential dreams, and oddly enough, they often happen before I’m to do something important.

    What do YOU think your dreams say about YOU?… more “Know Thyself #97”

  • WIBCI Post #96

    WIBCI we really knew HISTORIC FIGURES?

     In WIBCI #90 I quoted a description of an individual and told you I would reveal them in this post.

    Aristotle was the greatest of all polymaths, said to have transformed every field of knowledge that he touched, was the founder of Logic, his system of thought resulted in the modern world of science, and according to Paul Strathern, ‘his originality remains unparalleled in the history of philosophy.’

    This unparalleled genius was, born in 384bce he was the student of Plato, who was the student of Socrates and are thought of as the most important triumvirate in philosophy. He was Alexander the Great’s tutor and founded the Lyceum, (a rival school to Plato’s Academy that Aristotle opened years after Plato’s death when Aristotle was NOT appointed head of the Academy). 142 years later, when the Academy closed, this is considered by many as the end of Hellenistic thought.

    Unbelievably such an important human somehow seems to have been a great guy with a sense of humor. His will famously begins with the humorous words: ‘All will be well, but in case anything should happen… In Paul Strathern’s Aristotle in 90 minutes, he sums him up as follows: ‘In this we are fortunate, for Aristotle seems to have been a good man. He saw the goal of humanity as the pursuit of happiness, which he defined as the actualization of the best we are capable of…In Aristotle’s view, reason is man’s highest faculty. Therefore “the best (and happiest) man spends as much of his time as possible in the purest activity of reason, which is theorizing.’… more “WIBCI Post #96”

→←