[Vhfcn-l] Monday musings

[Gary Thewlis]

The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the
question of whether a submarine can swim.

E. W. Dijkstra

 

Dictators long ago found out it is easier to unite people in common hatred
than common love.

Dagobert D. Runes

 

The United States Congress, like a lot of rich people, lives in two houses.

John Green

 

The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.

Sir William Osler

 

Of course, I've got lawyers. They are like nuclear weapons: I've got em coz
everyone else has. But as soon as you use them, they screw everything up.

Danny DeVito

 

Do not allow children to mix drinks. It is unseemly and they use too much
vermouth.

Steve Allen

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Gravitas

 

Ever since George W Bush picked Richard Cheney as his running mate, the
candidates in the American presidential race have been vying to see who can
demonstrate the greatest gravitas, or appearance of dignity and seriousness.
The Washington Times has called it the "gravitas gambit", and Rush Limbaugh
has had fun playing recordings to illustrate how it has become a media
buzzword.

 

It's a Latin word, a noun formed from the adjective gravis, heavy. English
borrowed the Latin word via French as gravity at about the beginning of the
sixteenth century. Then, it had much the same sense as gravitas now has:
weight, influence, or authority. It could also refer to some matter that was
grave (which comes from the same Latin source) or to a solemn dignity, a
sobriety or seriousness of conduct. A weighty word indeed, the opposite of
levity, a lightness that causes bodies to rise, a tendency for people to
exhibit lightweight attitudes.

 

It was the natural philosophers of the early seventeenth century who began
to lay the ground for the introduction of gravitas by borrowing the word
gravity for that mysterious force that generates weight. After Isaac Newton,
gravity became so closely attached to the concept that it slowly lost some
of its associations with the older senses. Writers from the 1920s onwards
began to use gravitas instead, as a direct reference to the classical Latin
authors like Cicero who employed it in much the same way. It is very
noticeable that it was for some decades the preserve of portentous leader
writers, careful always to write it in italics to tell the reader that, yes,
we know it's a foreign word. But it looked so much more intellectual than
gravity and was so much better for communicating that sense of classical
sobriety that its appeal was irresistible.

 

In the past couple of decades, it has become accepted as a proper English
word, is now printed without the italics, and has become more popular. There
are signs that it is losing some of its force: a headline in the financial
pages of the Daily Telegraph last month shouted that "Vodafone provides the
gravitas", meaning only that the mobile phone company's excellent share
performance was propping up the stock market.

But it still looks a bit poncey and foreign. That final s will forever mark
it as not quite English: somebody may create gravita from it in the mistaken
belief it's a plural, as some already do with kudos.

 

Those who prefer to get their authoritative pronouncements from gurus may be
surprised to learn that that word comes from the same ancient Indo-European
root: in Sanskrit guru means weighty, grave or dignified. Grief and grieve
are other words from the Latin root.

 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Roman coins have been dug up in America, suggesting that perhaps the Vikings
or Columbus weren't the first Europeans to visit the New World. The coins
were found in locations as far afield as Texas, Venezuela and Maine. One
stash was found buried in a mound in Round Rock, Texas. The mound is dated
to approximately 800 A.D. In the town of Heavener, Okla., a bronze
tetradrachm bearing the profile of Emperor Nero was found in 1976. The coin
was originally struck in Antioch, Syria, in 63 A.D. 

 

The "Spruce Goose" flew on November 2, 1947, for one mile, at a maximum
altitude of 70 feet. Built by Howard Hughes, for decades the largest
aircraft ever built, the 140-ton eight-engine seaplane, made of birch, has a
wingspan of 320 feet. It was built as a prototype troop transport. Rejected
by the Pentagon, Hughes put the plane into storage, never to be flown again.


 

The 1st nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, commissioned by the United
States Navy in 1954, made her maiden voyage on Jan. 17, 1955.

 

The Emperor Caracalla--a tyrant remembered for slaying his brother and
building the extravagant Baths of Caracalla--was murdered by his own guards
while he was relieving himself. That may be where the phrase "caught with
your pants down" comes from. 

 

The dollar was established as the official currency of the US in 1785. 

 

The first coin minted in the United States was a silver dollar. It was
issued on October 15, 1794.