Archive Category: Book & Lit
The Art of Manliness’ 100 Must-Read Books
The Art of Manliness blog has a huge archive of the manly things manly man should do, like How to Break Down a Door, or How to Hug like a Man, so it’s refreshing to see something different.
Here’s a neat list of the 100 must-read books, the essential man’s library, by Jason Lankow, Ross Crooks, Joshua Ritchie, and Brett McKay:
There are the books you read, and then there are the books that change your life. We can all look back on the books that have shaped our perspective on politics, religion, money, and love. Some will even become a source of inspiration for the rest of your life. From a seemingly infinite list of books of anecdotal or literal merit, we have narrowed down the top 100 books that have shaped the lives of individual men while also helping define broader cultural ideas of what it means to be a man.
Good to see some of my favorite books listed, (yes, they’re not *just* for guys). Link
5 Scientific Laws and the Scientists Behind Them
"Eureka!" Archimedes screamed, then he ran outside naked ...
Well, now you can read about the interesting stuff that your school textbooks didn‘t bother to include. In his latest book, Archimedes to Hawking: Laws of Science and the Great Minds Behind Them, Cliff Pickover takes some 40 eponymous laws of physics and explains the life of the scientists whom these laws are named after. The book is far from a dry listing of scientific formulas - actually, it’s full of quirky trivia and nifty facts about some of the world’s greatest scientists.
Cliff has graciously allowed us to take samples from the book for this article and generously offer personalized copies of the book to 3 lucky Neatorama readers (see below for details).
So, if you didn’t know that Archimedes sometimes sent his colleagues false theorems in order to trap them when they stole his ideas, or that Daniel Bernoulli‘s father threw him out for winning a science competition, then this Neatorama post is for you. Behold, the 5 Scientific Laws and the Scientists Behind Them (no complicated math, we promise!)
1. Archimedes’ Principle of Buoyancy
The Law: According to Archimedes’ principle, a body wholly or partially submerged in liquid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced liquid. This buoyant force depends on the density of the liquid and the volume of the object, but not its shape.
The law seems simple, but it is actually not intuitive that objects with equal volume experience the same buoyant force when held under water: cubes made of cork and lead would experience the same buoyant force, yet would have completely different behavior. This is because the different ratios of buoyant force to object weights.
Archimedes’ Principle of Buoyancy has many applications, including determining the pressure of a liquid as a function of depth. It helps us understand how floatation works and is one of the founding principles of hydrostatics.
The Famous Legend Behind the Law: One day, King Hieron II of Syracuse, Sicily, wanted to find out whether his wreath-shaped crown was actually made from pure gold. He called upon Archimedes to find out (without damaging the crown, say by melting it down). Roman architect and engineer Marcus Vitruvius wrote:
While Archimedes was turning the problem over, he chanced to come to the place of bathing, and there, as he was sitting down in the tub, he noticed that the amount of water which flowed over the tub was equal to the amount by which his body was immersed. This showed him means of solving the problem … In his joy, he leapt out of the tub and, rushing naked toward his home, he cried out with a loud voice that he had found what he sought.
Archimedes was able to obtain the exact volume of the crown by dunking it in water and measuring the displaced water. He then took the weight of the crown and divided it by its volume to get the density of the crown, which turned out to be between that of gold and silver. Archimedes was thus able to show that the wreath was not made out of pure gold (and the royal goldsmith was executed).
Modern scholars suggest that this story was bogus, as it would be unlikely that Archimedes had measuring equipment with sufficient accuracy to detect the difference (plus, he hated to bathe - see below).
The
Man Behind the Law: Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 B.C.), was
a Greek geometer and is often regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians
and scientists who ever lived.
Here are a few things about Archimedes you may not know:
- Plutarch wrote that Archimedes was so obsessed with math that his servants had to force him to bathe, and that while they scrubbed him, he continued to draw geometrical figures on his body!
- Archimedes invented a machine called the Archimedean screw to pump water.
- He also invented a “death ray” weapon using a set of mirrors that focused sunlight on Roman ships, setting them on fire. After many scientists discounted the story as false, David Wallace of MIT actually did the experiment: He had his students build an oak replica of a Roman ship and focused sunlight on it using 127 mirrored tiles from a distance of 30 meters. After ten minutes of exposure, the ship burst into flames!
- When the Romans captured Syracuse in 212 B.C., a Roman soldier came upon the mathematician who was studying a mathematical diagram drawn in the sand. Archimedes was annoyed by the soldier’s interruption, and said “Don’t disturb my circles” before he was killed. Moral of the story: don’t piss off a Roman soldier!
2. Hooke’s Law of Elasticity
The Law: Hooke’s Law of Elasticity states that if an object, such a spring, is elongated by some distance x, then the restoring force F exerted by the object is proportional to x:
The k is a constant called the spring constant if the object is a spring.
The
Man Behind the Law: Robert Hooke (1635 - 1702) was an English
physicist and polymath. As you can see, Hooke was an ugly man (he was
severely disfigured by smallpox). (Photo: Molecular
Expressions: Science, Optics and You)
Here are a few things about Hooke you may not know:
- Robert Hooke was a sickly child and wasn’t expected to reach adulthood, so his parents didn’t bother educating him. Left to his own devices, Hooke made mechanical models and clocks.
- He was the first to coin the word “cell” to describe the basic unit of life (he thought that plant cells, when magnified through a microscope, looked like “cellula,” the living quarters of monks).
- Hooke was a busy man: he was the Surveyor to the City of London, helped rebuild the city after the Great Fire in 1666, and even designed the infamous Bethlem Royal Hospital (“Bedlam”) and the Royal College of Physicians.
- In 1672, Hooke criticized Isaac Newton who used a prism to split white light into its various components. Furious at Hooke, Newton had his portraits removed from the Royal Society and even attempted to burn his papers. Hooke mentioned to Newton about a possible inverse-square principle of gravitation, but Newton didn’t credit Hooke when he published Principia Mathematica, saying "Merely because one says something might be so, it does not follow that it has been proved that it is."
- Hooke was interested in the science of respiration, so he had himself placed in a sealed vessel from which air was gradually pumped out. As you can imagine, the experiment was detrimental to Hooke’s health: he damaged his ears and experienced deafness in the process.
- In 2006, the Royal Society purchased a manuscript by Hooke for $1.75 million, in which he wrote 500 pages of notes recorded during Royal Society meetings. In the notes, Hooke castigated Newton and Robert Boyle for stealing his ideas. He also wrote that Dutch microscopist Anton van Leeuwenhoek found "a vast number of small animals in his Excrements which were most abounding when he was troubled with a Looseness and very few or none when he was well."
3. Bernoulli's Law of Fluid Dynamics (Bernoulli's Principle)
The Law: Imagine fluid flowing steadily through a pipe that carries it from the top to the bottom of a hillside. The pressure of the liquid changes along the pipe, and Daniel Bernoulli discovered the law that relates the pressure, flow speed, and height for a fluid flowing in a pipe. Today, this law is written as:
You may not be aware of Bernoulli's Law, but it has numerous applications in real life: Bernoulli's Law is used when designing the Venturi throat, a constricted region in the air passage of a car motor's carburetor that causes a reduction in pressure, and in turn causes fuel vapor to be drawn out of the carburetor bowl.
The design of airplane wings take advantage of the knowledge we gleaned from Bernoulli's Law: these wings are designed to create an area of fast flowing air on its upper surface, which cause pressure near this area to drop and thus pull the wing upward.
Finally, we've all experienced Bernoulli's Law in action: the shower curtain is pulled inward when water first comes out of the shower because the increase in water and air velocity inside the shower causes pressure to drop. The pressure difference between the outside and inside of the curtain causes it to be sucked inward.
The
Man Behind the Law: Daniel Bernoulli (1700-1782) was polymath
that came from a family of extraordinary Swiss mathematicians. In fact,
his father, Johann Bernoulli, and his uncle, Jacob, were famous mathematicians.
Interestingly, both Daniel and his father Johann secretly studied mathematics against the wishes of their respective fathers. Just as Johann's father tried to force him into becoming a merchant, Johann did the same to Daniel. Indeed, Johann had his son's future all mapped out, including whom to marry!
Finally, Daniel told his father that he'd had enough, and both of them came to a truce: Daniel would become a doctor and Johann would personally teach him math.
Here are a few things about Daniel Bernoulli you may not know:
- Johann had always been jealous of Daniel's success. In 1735, after both the father and son tied for first place in a science competition held by the Paris Academy of Sciences, Johann was unable to bear the “shame" of being comparable to his son and threw Daniel out of his house for winning the prize that he felt should've been his alone!
- Daniel published his work on fluid physics in a book titled Hydrodynamica (where we get the word "hydrodynamics" from) in 1734. Johann became jealous of Daniel's work and published his own plagiarized version, Hydraulica … and predated it to 1732 to make it seem that his work appeared before his son's!
- Daniel was a prolific author and wrote on whatever subjects struck his fancy. One of his papers discussed the formula for computing the relationship between the number of oarsmen on a ship and the ship's velocity. In another paper, Daniel wrote what would become the basis of the economic theory of risk aversion and overall happiness gained from goods or services.
4. Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures
The Law: Dalton's Law of Partial Pressures states that the total pressure Pt exerted by a mixture of gases in a container is equal to the sum of the separate pressures that each gases would exert if just that single gas occupied the entire volume of the container.
That may seem trivial, but it's actually one of the more useful gas laws for scientists.
The
Man Behind the Law: John Dalton (1766 - 1844) grew in a poor
family, was a poor speaker, severely color-blind, and was even considered
a crude or simple experimentalist. Yet, he achieved significant professional
successes and made great contributions to chemistry, meteorology, and
physics.
In the early 19th century, Dalton developed the atomic theory, in which he proposed that each chemical element is composed of atoms of single, unique type and that though these atoms are indestructible, they can combine in simple ratios. For this, many consider Dalton to be the "Father of Chemistry".
Here are a few things about John Dalton you may not know:
- Legend has it that Dalton once bought his mother special stockings for her birthday. The mother, a Quaker woman, was shocked that he would buy her scarlet stockings. Dalton thought that they were blue, and asked his brother … who also saw them as blue! At that point, he realized that both he and his brother were color blind.
- Dalton did the first systematic study of color blindness and wrote the very first paper on the subject. In his honor, color blindness is sometimes called Daltonism.
- Since he was 21, Dalton kept a detailed diary of the weather, and continued to update it until the very day of his death. Dalton was so obsessed with records that he kept meticulous records of hits, misses, and other scores when he played the English game of lawn bowling!
- Dalton never married, saying "My head is too full of triangles, chymical process, and electrical experiments, etc., to think much of marriage."
- After his death, and according to his wishes, one of Dalton's eyes was cut open to determine the cause of his color blindness (Dalton had always thought that it was due to colored fluid inside his eyes - but that turned out not to be the case.) In the 1990s, cellular analysis revealed that the eye lacked the pigment that provides sensitivity to green.
5. Fourier's Law of Heat Conduction
The Law: Fourier's Law of Heat Conduction deals with the transmission of heat in materials. The law states that the heat flux, Q (the flow of heat per unit area and per unit of time), is proportional to the gradient of the temperature difference.
Fourier's Law is used in many diverse areas of science, and it explains why diamonds are cool to the touch (they have high thermal conductivity).
The
Man Behind the Law: Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768 - 1830)
was a French mathematicians and Egyptologist.
Here are a few things about Fourier you may not know:
- When he was only 16, Fourier discovered a new proof of Descartes’ rule of signs. His teenage achievement quickly became standard proof. By the age of 21, however, Fourier was in doubt whether he could ever make a significant contribution to mathematics. He wrote to his professor "Yesterday was my 21st birthday, at that age Newton and Pascal had already acquired many claims to immortality." It’s a good thing Fourier carried on!
- Instead of a career in science, young Fourier seriously considered being a priest. Indeed, he arrived at the Benedictine abbey of St. Benoit-sur-Leoire to prepare for his vows, but left when he realized that he only had one true love: mathematics.
- During the French Revolution, Fourier tried to defend scientists like Antoine Lavoisier, the founder of modern chemistry. Appeals to spare Lavoisier’s life was cut short when the judge said “The Republic has no need for geniuses” and he was guillotined. Afterwards, Fourier was thrown in prison but managed to escape death when the political climate changed.
- In his work on heat propagation in thin sheets of material, Fourier invented a very useful mathematical tool that would later become known as the Fourier Series. Here, Fourier showed that any periodic function can be represented by a sum of simple sine and cosine oscillating functions.
- Fourier accompanied Napoleon to Egypt. When he returned, Fourier had a strange medical condition: he was always cold and had to wear several overcoats, even in the heat of summer. It’s ironic to think that though he was an expert in heat transfer, Fourier was not good at regulating his own body heat!
- Global warming? Blame Fourier - he came up with the idea that the atmosphere acts as a “translucent dome,” which like a lid of a pot, absorbs some of the heat of the Sun and reradiates it downward to Earth.
- During his last months, Fourier’s body was so frail that he would live inside a wooden box with holes cut out for his head and arms. This “living coffin” would keep his body upright and let him work on his correspondence!
The
article above is but a small selection of the amazing trivia and fascinating
stories about some of the greatest names in science. If you love science,
or would like to instill the love of science to your children, pick up
Cliff Pickover's Archimedes to Hawking: Laws of Science and the Great
Minds Behind Them. You won't be disappointed
Links: Archimedes to Hawking Amazon page | The book's website | Cliff's website
On a personal note, this article took way longer than I thought (and I didn't even get to Stephen Hawking!) ... because I ended up reading Cliff's book from cover to cover! It was definitely an interesting read.
Now, like I mentioned above, Cliff has generously offered free copies of Archimedes to Hawking to Neatorama readers with the most interesting experience with science or funny personal story about a science class ... Write yours in the comment section; the best three will win a free personalized copy of Cliff's book (so make it good!)
If you like this article, please digg it - thank you!
How to Create Invisible Shelves
Stack your books on the wall supported by… nothing! They appear to be floating. Complete instructions for making your own can be found at WikiHow. Link -via the Presurfer
(image credit: VideoJug)
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+SUQuote: Groucho Marx on Man’s Best Friend
"Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read."
- Groucho Marx, comedian and actor
New Rough Guide to (Self-Important and Irritating) England
According to the new "Rough Guide to England" travel book, England is a nation of "animal-loving, tea-drinking charity donor who love nothing better than forming an orderly queue."
That, and "an irritating and insular country full of overweight, binge-drinking, reality TV addicts," the guide warns tourists:
Gone, it seems, is the image of a genteel country awash with Englishmen politely tipping their bowler hats, groping through the London fog and being kinder to pets than kids.
The writers confess to bafflement over the quirky English, concluding that of the 200 countries the guide reviews there is none "so fascinating, beautiful and culturally diverse yet as insular, self-important and irritating as England."
They said the English are proud of their multi-culturalism and are united by one thing — their sense of humor.
But there are constant contradictions. In a country priding itself on patriotism, they have a Scottish Prime Minister, an Italian football coach and a Greek married to the Queen.
Even with all that, my trip to London some years ago was the best vacation I’ve ever had! Link
Le Train de Nulle Part, A Novel Written Without Verbs
Le Train de Nulle Part (The Train From Nowhere) is a 233-page French novel written by Michel Thaler. It is written without a single verb.
Sample (from Wikipedia):
Quelle aubaine ! Une place de libre, ou presque, dans ce compartiment. Une escale provisoire, pourquoi pas ! Donc, ma nouvelle adresse dans ce train de nulle part : voiture 12, 3ème compartiment dans le sens de la marche. Encore une fois, pourquoi pas ?
Fool’s luck! A vacant seat, almost, in that train. A provisional stop, why not? So, my new address in this nowhere train: car 12, 3rd compartment, forward. Once again, why not?
Thaler said this about verbs: "The verb is like a weed in a field of flowers. You have to get rid of it to allow the flowers to grow and flourish. Take away the verbs and the language speaks for itself." (Source)
Animal Index Book Divider
Animal Index is a cute set of book dividers (also works for magazine and CDs) by Hiroshi Sasagawa, made to look like animal silhouettes.
They look like something you can make yourself as a fun weekend project with the kids!
Link [in Japanese] - via Happy Mundane
10 Insulting Words You Should Know
*For example:
"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go," says Oscar Wilde.
George Bernard Shaw wrote to Winston Churchill, "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend....if you have one." And Churchill wrote back, "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second......if there is one"
Well, it’s hard to teach wit - but all of us can learn the next best thing: the approximation of it by obfuscation, i.e. using big, difficult, and obscure words. So, to do our part in improving the quality of insults on teh Interweb, Neatorama has come up with a list of 10 Insulting Words You Should Know:
1. FRENCHIFY (v)
Definition:
1) To make French in quality or trait 2) To make somewhat effeminate,
and 3) To contract a veneral disease (a 19th century slang).
Analysis: We have the English to thank for this word. Most people implicitly understand that it means to become more like the French, but not a lot know the second or the third meaning. We’re still not sure which is more insulting.
2. BESCUMBER (v)
Definition:
To spray with poo.
Analysis: Actually bescumber is just one of many words in the English language that basically mean “to spray with poo”. These are: BEDUNG, BERAY, IMMERD, SHARNY, and the good ol’ SHITTEN. In special cases, you can use BEMUTE (specifically means to drop poo on someone from great height), SHARD-BORN (born in dung), and FIMICOLOUS (living and growing on crap).
Alternative: If that is too vulgar, you can use BEVOMIT and BEPISS, which meanings should be obvious to you, as well as BESPAWL (to spit on).
Oh, and if you want to say poo without looking like you're saying it, you can use ORDURE, DEJECTION, and EXCRETA. To mean something more specific, you can use MECONIUM (first feces of a newborn child), MELAENA or MELENA (the abnormally tarry feces containing blood from gastrointestinal bleeding), LIENTERY (diarrhea with undigested or partially digested food), and STEATORRHEA (fatty stool that's hard to flush down).
Here are some words along the same line that may one day prove to be useful for you: TURDIFY (turn into turd), COPROPHAGIA (eating of feces [wiki]), and COPROPHILIA (Think 2 Girls 1 Cup [wiki - don't worry, SWF], if you don't know what this is, I shan't corrupt you any further).
Let's end entry number two with these two amazing words COPREMESIS and MISERERE, both of which mean fecal vomiting. Yes, fecal vomiting. It's a medical emergency caused by the obstruction of the bowel (source).
3. MICROPHALLUS (n)
Definition:
An unusually small penis.
Analysis: Self explanatory.
Alternative: Insulting a man’s private part is a very reliable way to put him down (if he’s smaller than you) or to get beat up (if he’s larger than you). Usually, even a dimwit can decipher the meaning of this word, after all, it’s just a combination of “micro” and “phallus”.
So, to insult a physically larger opponent, we recommend you use these words instead: PHALLOCRYPSIS (retraction or shrinkage of the penis), CRYPTORCHID (undescendend testicles), and PHALLONCUS (tumor of the penis).
4. COCCYDYNIA (n)
Definition:
Pain in the butt.
Analysis: It's a real medical term: coccydynia is pain in the coccyx or tailbone. Most people simply call it "buttache."
Similar: PROCTALGIA, PROCTODYNIA, PYGALGIA and RECTALGIA all mean pain in the butt.
Alternative: CERVICALGIA (pain in the neck), PHALLODYNIA or PHALLALGIA (both mean pain in the penis), and PUDENDAGRA (pain in the genitals).
The word "butt" is highly versatile in its vernacular use - you can say "butt face" or "hairy butt" - dem are fightin' words - but it's much better to use these instead: ANKYLOPROCTIA (stricture of the anus, the state of "tight-assity"), STEATOPYGOUS (fat-assed), DASYPYGAL (having hairy buttocks), and CACOPYGIAN (having ugly buttocks).
nbsp;
5. NINNYHAMMER (n)
Definition:
A fool or a silly person.
Analysis: The word "fool," unless you're Mr. T, is sometimes
woefully inadequate to express the stupidity of the person you're talking
about. So use Ninnyhammer. Or at least NINNY.
Alternative: The English language is chockful of colorful words meaning stupid person, such as: DUMMKOPF, IGNORAMUS, JOBBERNOWL, GOWK, and WITLING.
For mental retardation, eschew the ubiquitous 'tard - rather, use AMENTIA (extreme mental retardation because of inadequate brain tissue), CRETINISM (mental retardation associated with dwarfism, caused by the deficiency of a thyroid hormone, a person with cretinism is a CRETIN), and MORONITY (used to mean mild retardation of having a mental age of 7 to 12 years, now it's an obsolete term though we still use the word moron).
6. BUNCOMBE (n)
Definition:
A ludicrously false statement. Basically it means bullshit or nonsense.
Analysis: Actually, you probably already know this word by its more common spelling: bunkum.
The origin of this word is fascinating. In 1819, a North Carolina congressman, the Honorable Felix Walker, was giving a rambling speech with little relevance to the current debate. He refused to yield the floor, and claimed that he wasn't speaking for Congress but instead "for Buncombe" (a county in North Carolina he represented). That's all it took.
Over time, the spelling changed to "bunkum," and the meaning strangely changed to be "excellent." Then it changed back in 1870, when a San Francisco gambler introduced a new game "banco" played with dice that were later found out to be loaded. Sure enough, BUNCO became known to mean swindle or cheat, and bunkum reverted back to its original meaning. (Source)
The word DEBUNK came directly from this: it's just bunk(um) with the prefix de- (meaning to remove).
7. HIRCISMUS (n)
Definition:
Offensive armpit odor.
Analysis: Hircismus comes from the root word "hircus"
which means goat in Latin. Someone must have thought smelly pits smelled
like goats. Actually, this word combines two sources of great insult potential:
smelly and armpits. Why this is not used more often in the discourse of
hateful communication is beyond me.
Alternative: As we've mentioned, armpit is an untapped
goldmine for insults. Here are some examples of words you can use: MASCHALEPHIDROSIS
or MASCHALYPERIDROSIS (excessive sweating of the armpits). MASCHALOPHILOUS
(sexual attraction to the underarms) and AXILLISM (the use of armpit for
sex).
Smelling like goats is also a good source of insults (especially since goat is also a slang for a lecherous man). Try CAPRYLIC and HIRCINE (smelling like a pungent goat), and CAPRIC (resembling a goat).
8. CORPULENT (adj)
Definition:
Very fat.
Analysis: Good ol' fat is a reliable insult word. After all, nowadays, no one like a fatty ... except Mauritanian men. That's right: in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, fat and Rubenesque women are sexy and desirable. So much so, that instead of the crash diet of the West, they have a similar but opposite program: crash feeding or "gavage," where girls as young as 5 years old are force-fed milk, cream, butter, couscous and other calorie-rich food:
Girls as young as 5 and as old as 19 had to drink up to five gallons of fat-rich camel’s or cow’s milk daily, aiming for silvery stretch marks on their upper arms. If a girl refused or vomited, the village weight-gain specialist might squeeze her foot between sticks, pull her ear, pinch her inner thigh, bend her finger backward or force her to drink her own vomit. In extreme cases, girls died. (Source)
Interestingly, the ideal man is skinny (Mauritanians view portly men as womanish and lazy).
Alternative: ABDOMINOUS (potbellied), STEATOPYGOUS (fat-assed), and FUSSOCK (a very fat woman).
9. FEIST or FICE (n)
Definition:
1) A small dog of uncertain ancestry, a mongrel. 2) A person of little
worth or someone with a bad temper, and 3) Silent fart.
Analysis: You actually already know this word: feist
is used throughout the Midland and Southern United States to mean a snappy,
nervous and belligerent little dog. The adjective feisty which
means "full of spirit or spunky," comes from this word. But
that's not why it's on this list (hint: #3!)
What you may not know is the true origin of the word. Feist comes from the Middle English fisten, which means to break wind (fist originally also meant flatus or fart). Feist is a special type of fart: the silent (and often deadly) type. Oh, and the word "fart" itself comes from another Middle English word farten or ferten, which in turn is from the Old English feortan.
Feist is the type of word that, if introduced to young adolescents, no doubt would spark a lifelong interest in learning new words.
Alternative: Fart is another one of those goldmines of insults. To obfuscate what you really mean, use instead: FLATUOSITY (fart). Other gems: EPROCTOLAGNIAC (someone aroused by flatulence, his own or someone else's), CARMINATIVE (something that makes you fart), and BDOLOTIC (prone to farting).
10. CACAFUEGO (n)
Definition:
A swaggering braggart or boaster.
Analysis: Cacafuego literally means "shit fire"
in Spanish. Anyone who boasts their new knowledge of insulting words from
this article can be called a cacafuego.
That's not the only interesting thing about it:
Cacafuego is also the nickname of a 16th century Spanish galleon captured by Sir Francis Drake (El Draque or The Dragon as he was known to his Spanish victims). The ship's original name was Nuestra Señora de la Concepción (Our Lady of Conception), but for some reason it's called by her sailors as "cagafuego" (fireshitter) or "cacafuego" (shitfire).
It was Drake's biggest plunder: it took his crew four days to transfer the cargo from the Cacafuego. In all, Drake got 80 pounds of gold, 26 tons of silver, 13 cases of silver coins, jewels, and more.
Synonym: BLATHERSKITE, BRAGGADOCIO, FANFARON, GASCONADER, and RODOMONTADE (English is full of this kind of word, though I think caca "shit fire" fuego is in a class of its own!)
REFERENCES
- Depraved
and Insulting English, a marvelous book by Peter Novobatzky and Ammon
Shea. Highly, highly recommended.
- The Free Dictionary
by Farlex
- Free Thesaurus by DonationCoder
(based on Grady Ward's Moby Thesaurus)
- Miriam-Webster Unabridged
Dictionary (it's behind a paywall)
Lesbos Islanders Mad About the Word “Lesbian”
People of the Greek Island of Lesbos [wiki], the original Lesbians, are suing gay organizations from using the term "lesbian" to mean a homosexual woman:
The man spearheading the case, publisher Dimitris Lambrou, claims that international dominance of the word in its sexual context violates the human rights of the islanders, and disgraces them around the world.
He says it causes daily problems to the social life of Lesbos’s inhabitants.
By the way, the word "lesbian" is derived from the erotic poems of the ancient Greek poet Sappho [wiki], who was born around in the 7th Century BC in the island of Lesbos.
Link - Thanks CheeseDuck!
First Drawing of Spider-Man Now at Library of Congress
The Library of Congress had just acquired the original 1962 drawings from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s "Amazing Fantasy #15" - complete with Ditko’s pencil erasures and white-out opaquing fluid - in which Spider-Man made its first appearance in print!
Matt Raymond of the Library of Congress Blog wrote:
People who are more familiar with Amazing Fantasy #15 than I are probably not surprised by this fact, but I got a good chuckle from the disclaimer that appeared at the top of the first page (pictured at left). It almost seems to be begging skeptical readers to give Spider-Man a chance, completely unaware of the phenomenon that was about to be unleashed on the world.
The excessively exclamatory paragraph reads: “Like costume heroes? Confidentially, we in the comic mag business refer to them as ‘long underwear characters’! And, as you know, they’re a dime a dozen! But, we think you may find our SPIDER-MAN just a bit … different!”
The good folks at the LOC promises to digitize the collection forthwith! Link - Thanks Matt!
Postmodern Essay Generator
In 1994, New York University physics professor Alan Sokal made headlines when he published his article “Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity.” in the sociological quarterly Social Text. He then revealed that he had submitted the article as a hoax and that the text was a parody of postmodernist philosophy. Sokal completely fooled the “scholarly” editors of Social Text into printing his parody of their intellectual presuppositions.
In this vein, you, too, can enjoy instant pomo goodness with the Postmodern Essay Generator, courtesy of the blog Communications From Elsewhere. Just click on “refresh” for instant, angst-filled, tenure-track gratification.
Link via Jim Morrow
My Beautiful Mommy: Children’s Book About Plastic Surgery
Florida plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Salzhauer saw an unfulfilled niche and decided to do something about it: he wrote a children’s book about mommy’s plastic surgery!
"My Beautiful Mommy," written by Florida-based plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Salzhauer, is billed by its author as the first book that explains plastic surgery to kids, an issue with which he says many of his patients struggle.
"More than half the women that come in for procedures bring their children with them," he said. "And most parents go into
denial about the surgery with regard to their children.""My Beautiful Mommy" focuses on a mother explaining an impending nose job and tummy tuck to her young daughter, who is scared that her mommy may look different. Mommy also undergoes a breast enhancement in the book, a fact depicted only through the illustrations so as not to get too graphic for child readers.
Link - via Miss Cellania
Tale of a Studio Book: From the Library to an Antique Store to the Internet, and Back to the Studio
In the 1940s, film giant 20th Century Fox lent several hand-bound books to the University of Southern California library. These books contained examples of various documents and forms used during filmmaking and studio operations (probably lent to the library for educational reasons).
Fast forward to 2005: Somehow the book made its way to an antique store, where it was bought by Derek D. and his wife. The couple then listed it on their online store. Here’s where it got interesting: a lawyer from the 20th Century Fox Film Studio found it, told them that it was stolen property and asked for it back.
Here’s the story of the journey of one (presumed stolen) book, which brings an interesting question of what happen when a collector unknowingly obtained a stolen object:
This point here is the tipping point whenever it is found that a collector has illegal property in their possession. Even if a court motion is the first knowledge of the disputed ownership, working out a deal with the rightful owner is the first step. Unless a collector knows indisputably that the other party has no rightful claim, a reasonable agreement should be met in the middle. In nearly every case listed in my previous article, the current owner attempted, or was in the process of, working with either law enforcement or the party claiming ownership. Stephen Spielberg has discovered a stolen painting in his collection, and he went to the FBI for help in working out ownership; I highly doubt legal action will be taken against Spielberg, but he is definitely at risk of losing the painting…but not all stolen items end up returned to the original owner. Acting in good faith is likely to encourage a amicable resolution, and if the problem has no other recourse but to go to court, the judge may view the attempts to resolve the situation in a positive light.
By the way, Infomercantile has a detailed chart outlining the organizational structure of the film studio in the 1940s, listing everyone from the chairman to studio security: Link
Mime Alphabet Book
Photo: eliz.avery [Flickr]
Flickr user eliz.avery found this strange children book from 1974: the Mime Alphabet Book by Nina and Cathy Gasiorowicz - via Quiddity
Here are a couple of the letters:
D is for dying
N is for nobody
T is for trapped
X is for xenophobia (fear of strange things)
Word of the Day: Feague and What It Has Got to Do with a Horse’s Butt
What I like about Scribal Terror blog is how Gail Hapke throws in a neat vocab lesson every now and then. Take this post on "feague", which means:
“to put ginger up a horse’s fundament, or a live eel, to make him lively and carry his tail well; it is said, a forfeit is incurred by any horse-dealer’s servant, who shall shew a horse without first feaguing him. Feague is used, figuratively, for encouraging or spiriting one up”.
(What’s a fundament? The Free Dictionary to the rescue)
(Illustration: AWhitehorse, who obviouly doesn’t approve of the whole ginger thingy)
Will Ashford’s Recycled Words
Will Ashford turns pages from old books he found at garage sales, street markets and used bookstores into works of art:
When I find a good candidate I explore every page. Like an archeologist I hunt for the words that speak to me with new meaning. Intuitively, one word at a time, they turn into a kind of haiku or philosophical poetry that I can call my own.
At some unpredictable point along the way, in my mind, the images start to invent themselves. Using colored vellums, graphite and or India ink to highlight or obscure my words; I create the image of that invention. Though I strive to make each document visually engaging I find it is the words that I value most.
Not to be missed: Link - via Bibi’s Box
Tech Origin of 9 Idioms
Boing Boing Gadgets has a very neat post about 9 common idioms that turned out to have technological origins. For example:
"Push the envelope"
Common definition: Extreme, testing the limits (e.g. "That backside 1440 on the halfpipe was really pushing the envelope, broseph!")
Original definition: In aviation, the term flight envelope has been used since WWII to define the limit of what is safe to fly (engine power, maneuverability, wind speed, altitude). By "pushing the envelope", test pilots were able to find out the limits of aircraft. The "envelope" was a mathematical term to describe the boundaries of a set of numbers-like performance data from test aircraft.
First use: The phrase was used in print as early as 1978 in an edition of Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine: "The aircraft’s altitude envelope must be expanded to permit a ferry flight across the nation. NASA pilots were to push the envelope to 10,000 ft." However, it was Tom Wolfe’s "The Right Stuff" that put the term into popular consciousness.
Rainbow in Your Hand Flipbook
This flipbook by Masashi Kawamura, Rainbow in Your Hand, is so simple it’s genius: as you flip through the pages, a "rainbow" appears as if by magic!
Link [in Japanese] - YouTube Clip of the flipbook in action - Thanks wade7!
Picturesque Review of the Costume of the Portuguese
A Franciscan friar and a lay brother, as seen before the abolition of their Order.
BibliOdyssey blog has a neat post about a charming set of gouache sketches from a 1836 book titled "Picturesque Review of the Costume of the Portuguese." Though the identity of the artist is not known, it’s surmised that the sketches are mementos or gifts for tourists visiting Portugal way back when!
The sketches are sympathetic and most I would describe as quaint portraits. Even the true caricatures are gently humorous without any hint of malevolence. The language in the title and in some of the captions is just a little skewed or unusual, more likely associated with a non-native speaker, to my mind. I may of course be completely wrong. It’s a sweet little series in any event.
Pangram Blog
What do these sentences have in common?
"I noticed his glazed pompadour had acquired a killer swoop; a foxy wave befitting a jester."
"Strike with prejudice against laziness, that quixotic devil procrastination—but maybe tomorrow."
"Coitus interruptus—often exactly at the wrong moment, quite bedeviling kenetic zest—just happens."
Neatorama reader Ryan Hagen explains:
I’ve been fascinated for a while now by Pangrams,
sentences which contain each letter of the alphabet at least once (the most
famous one of course is "the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog"). A few
weeks ago, as a challenge to myself, I started writing one pangram every
morning, and have been so captivated by the process that I find I can’t stop.So I started this blog, Pangramaday, to showcase the best of them.
Link - Thanks Ryan! (BTW, the illustration is from The Liner by John Ralston, whom we’ve covered before here on Neatorama)
The Accidents of Youth: a 1819 Book About the Gory Consequences of Not Heeding Your Mom’s Advice
The Accidents of Youth is a 1819 book of short stories to warn children of the dangerous temptations they should avoid and the gory consequences for not following their mother’s advice. Along with the text, there are several wonderful engravings to illustrate the situation.
This particular one is about the hazard of teasing a cat:
My mother used to say, ‘Simon, you will be bitten, or scratched, or get kicked;’ but I listened to nothing that she said, and continued to do as I pleased. I was soon punished, as you will hear.
"One of our neighbours had a Tom-Cat, whose whiskers were as long as my finger. I amused myself by pulling the hairs. &c.; for, as I have already told you, I was then as naughty as you are. My mother never ceased repeating to me, - ‘Simon, the cat will scratch you, if you do not let him alone.’ I took no notice of what she said, but went on my own way. One day, when the Tom-cat was in a worse humour than usual, and determined to defend his whiskers, he threw out his paw so nimbly, that he scratched me in the left eye, and burst it. Thus, for not having paid attention to the commands of my mother, God punished me with the loss of an eye.
Link [PDF] - via Internet Archive | More selection of fantastic children’s book from the Internet Archive at STWALLSKULL Blog
The Most Horrible English Words
Writinghood author Chang Lee Peng has a list of what he considers to be the 10 most difficult words to spell in the English language, such as Floccinaucihihilipilification, which means “act or habit to deny the value of some particular things.”
Common Errors in English Usage by Paul Brians
Paul Brians is a Professor of English at the Washington State University. His website, "Common
Errors in English," has been around for a while but I’ve only discovered it recently.
Paul has compiled a huge list of errors in (American) English usage, listed alphabetically. If you don’t know the differences between apiece / a piece, in to / into, and whether / whether or not, his website is worth a visit: Link
An equally fascinating, albeit a little hidden, part of his website is the list of Non-Errors. These are usages people keep on telling you are wrong, but which are actually standard in English. For example:
You shouldn’t pronounce the “e” in “not my forte.”
Some people insist that it’s an error to pronounce the word “forte” in the expression “not my forte” as if French-derived “forte” were the same as the Italian musical term for “loud”: “for-tay.” But the original French expression is pas mon fort, which not only has no &