February 15, 2001 - All the Rest

ALL THE REST – February 15

Today's Quotations — POWER

There are questions of real power and then there are questions of phony authority. You have to break through the phony authority to begin to fight the real questions of power.

— Karen Nussbaum

Right and truth are greater than any power, and all power is limited by right.

— Benjamin Whichcote, Moral and Religiou

The property of power is to protect.

— Blaise Pascal

Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken.

— Abigail Adams

Power is something of which I am convinced there is no innocence this side of the womb.

— Nadine Gordimer

Today's Word – SUPPLANT

sup·plant transitive verb sup·plant·ed, sup·plant·ing, sup·plants. 1. To usurp the place of, especially through intrigue or underhanded tactics. 2. To displace and substitute for (another) Synonyms replace.

King Richard: The ripest fruit first falls, and so doth he:
His time is spent; our pilgrimage must be.
So much for that. Now for our Irish wars.
We must supplant those rough rug-headed kerns,
Which live like venom where no venom else
But only they have privilege to live.

King Richard the Second.
By William Shakespeare

Definitions from American Heritage Dictionary

Today's Fact

Over the next several days the facts here on the DM will be about Serendipitous Discoveries.
This is the first fact on this subject.

Serendipity
Discoveries
Eureka!

Serendipity, or chance discovery. This has been the means of a number of scientific discoveries both great and small.

SERENDIPITY 1
Once one has a name for something it's easier to recognize it the next time that something manifests itself. Chance is everywhere, and puts new opportunities in our paths seemingly at random. In such an environment it seems obvious that a teacher should encourage students to seek and welcome the unexpected, and to think of learning as an adventure instead of a well-trodden path. The novice is often dazzled by novelties; the connoisseur of serendipity often asks "why am I not surprised?"

The Meanings of "Serendip"

There has been numerous incidents of serendipitous discoveries this century. We all know the story of possibly one of the earliest discoveries by serendipity.

Probably the first recorded example of an accidental discovery is in third century BC Greece.

The king of Syracuse, Hiero, suspected his new gold crown was not pure gold. He called on the services of the mathematician Archimedes to lay his fears to rest. Archimedes knew that to find what the crown was made of he would need to work out the volume of an irregular solid. Then when he stepped into the bath he noticed water spilling over the top, and suddenly realized that the volume of the spilt water was equal to his bulk. So if he put the crown into water he could find its volume. Then he had to obtain a block of pure gold the same weight as the crown. If the volume was the same then the crown was gold, not an alloy. Archimedes jumped out the bath and ran naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting 'Eureka, eureka!' 'I've found it!'

Sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica | Shell Book of Firsts

Is This Success?

In 1923 a group of the world’s most successful financiers met at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago.

Collectively, these tycoons controlled more wealth than there was in the United States Treasury, and for years newspapers and magazines had been printing their success stories and urging the youth of the nation to follow their examples.

    Twenty-seven years later, let’s see what happened to them.


(1)    CHARLES SCHWAB—the president of the largest independent steel company—lived on borrowed money the last five years of his life, and died penniless.

(2)    ARTHUR CUTTEN—the greatest wheat speculator—died abroad insolvent.

(3)    RICHARD WHITNEY—the president of the New York Stock Exchange—was released some time ago from Sing Sing.

(4)    ALBERT FALL—the member of the President’s Cabinet—was pardoned from prison so he could die at home.

(5)    JESSE LIVERMORE—the greatest bear in Wall Street—committed suicide.

(6)    LEON FRASER—the president of the Bank of International Settlement—committed suicide.

(7)    IVAR KRUEGER—the head of the world’s greatest monopoly—committed suicide.

    All of these men had learned how to make money, but not one of them had learned how to live.

Sources: Tan's Illustrations

Today's SMILE

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but, scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable."

Joseph Addison

A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Proverbs 17:22 (NIV)



  A Few Lawyer Jokes

A man walked into a bar with his alligator and asked the bartender, "Do you serve lawyers here?".
"Sure do," replied the bartender.
"Good," said the man. "Give me a beer, and I'll have a lawyer for my 'gator."

A woman and her little girl were visitng the grave of the little girl's grandmother. On their way through the cemetary back to the car, the little girl asked, "Mommy, do they ever bury two people in the same grave?"
"Of course not, dear." replied the mother, "Why would you think that?"
"The tombstone back there said 'Here lies a lawyer and an honest man.'"

"You seem to have more than the average share of intelligence for a man of your background," sneered the lawyer at a witness on the stand.
"If I wasn't under oath, I'd return the compliment," replied the witness.

SOME THINGS TO PONDER

Tell a man that there are 400 billion stars, and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint, and he has to touch it.

How come SUPERMAN could stop bullets with his chest, but always ducked when someone threw a gun at him?

If it was only a 3 hour cruise, why did MRS. HOWELL have so many clothes?

Why is it called a HAMBURGER, when it's made out of BEEF?

Why does SOUR CREAM have an Expiration date?

What would a chair look like, if your knees bent the other way?

IF "Con" is the Opposite of "Pro"....then what is the opposite of PROGRESS?

Why is LEMON JUICE mostly artificial ingredients.... but DISH WASHING LIQUID contains real lemons?

WHY MEN ARE PROUD OF THEMSELVES:

We know stuff about tanks.

A five-day trip requires only one suitcase.

We can open all our own jars.

We don't have to learn to spell a new last name.

We can kill our own food.

Wedding plans take care of themselves.

Visiting Plato In School

In a classroom pupils were asked to always write in silence. One day the teacher dozed off and was awakened by some of the pupils making noise.

To cover her embarrassment she said, "It was always my wish to meet the scholar Plato and, a while ago, I did see him in my dream."

The next day a pupil dozed off while listening to the teacher's long lecture. Upon seeing the sleeping child, the teacher woke him up and rebuked him. "Why are you sleeping during the lecture?"

The pupil answered, "I also went to see the scholar Plato."

The teacher asked, "And what did Plato say?", to which the pupil replied, "Plato said he did not meet with you yesterday."

TRUE FACT ...

Humans begin laughing at two to three months of age. Six year olds laugh about 300 times per day, while adults laugh from 15 to 100 times per day.

SOURCE: NYT, Dr. William F. Fry, Stanford University

Life without bears would be unbearable.

Daily Miscellany Comics

Have A Great Day

Phillip Bower

Soul Food February 15

Today in History February 15

Send Mail to pbower@neo.rr.com

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Copyright Information: Phillip Bower is not the author of the humor, and does not claim to own any copyright privileges to the jokes. Sources of jokes are listed when known. Birthday's and Happenings for the date, and quotations are public knowledge and collected from numerous sources. Quotations are public knowledge and sources are listed when known. Weekendspirations are written by Tim Knappenberger who has copyright privileges. Cathy Vinson authors Whispers from the Wilderness and owns copyright privileges. Weekendspirations and Whispers from the Wilderness are used with permission by the respective authors. Other devotions are written by Phillip Bower unless otherwise stated. In all cases credit is given when known. The Daily Miscellany is nonprofit. Submissions by readers is welcome.