Month: July 2013

Only 354?

  • X
  • Ṣafar
  • Rabīʿ I (Rabīʿ al-Awwal)
  • Rabīʿ II (Rabīʿ al-Ākhir)
  • Jumādā I (Jumādā al-Ūlā)
  • Jumādā II ( Jumādā al-Ākhira)
  • Rajab
  • Shaʿbān
  • Y
  • Shawwāl
  • Dhū al-Qaʿda
  • Dhū al-Ḥijja

Pretty simple.

What is this a list of and what are X and Y?

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Aside

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X was originally a normal human called Nick Chopper. He kept losing limbs from an enchanted axe, but each time he lost a body part, he had it replaced with a prosthetic, thus finally becoming X.
This is an example of a philosophical paradox that raises the question- if an object has all its parts replaced, does it fundamentally remain the same.
The name of the paradox also lends its name to an acclaimed Indian indie movie.
Name the character and the paradox.

Lost in Translation?

The seal of the U.S. state of Virginia depicts the figure of Virtue standing over the fallen figure of Tyranny, with her foot on Tyranny’s throat and a quote underneath thus leading to one of the oldest jokes saying that it really means “Get your foot off my neck.” The quote is however attributed to Brutus, who supposedly said it after assassinating Caesar.

John Wilkes Booth also said it after assassinating Abraham Lincoln.

However Virginia did send a letter to Washington condemning his use of their motto.

Also, the guy involved in the Oklahoma bombing was arrested wearing a t-shirt with this quote.

What quote?

Chumble Spuzz

 

Who’s idiosyncratic vocabulary? Plenty of clues.   

  • Children were referred to as epsilons (because in mathematics, particularly calculus, an arbitrarily small positive quantity is commonly denoted by the Greek letter (ε))
  • Women were “bosses”
  • Men were “slaves”
  • People who stopped doing mathematics had “died”
  • People who physically died had “left”
  • Alcoholic drinks were “poison”
  • Music was “noise”
  • People who had married were “captured”
  • People who had divorced were “liberated”
  • To give a mathematical lecture was “to preach”
  • To give an oral exam to a student was “to torture” him/her.
  • This person also gave names to countries – USA was samland, Israel was isreal, Soviet Union was joedem – named after Stalin.