Saturday, March 10, 2007

Some Buddy Sent Me a Picture


A rectangle in space, like "The Matrix".
Some say it is deduck's yen.
"No, it is two quackers," others dedeuce.
But I say it is deducktable - less taxing.
Flowers lend a random softness to the implied order.
That's why they are called a talc cymbal.
Maybe the noise doesn't surround us.
Maybe we surround it.
If the sound
Annoys you,
Listen Quieter.
Quack, Quack!!

18 comments:

Ursula said...

X - the talc symbol?

The diagonal cross with arms of equal length is an extremely old sign. Like the cross with arms of equal length, it has been found engraved on the walls of prehistoric caves in Europe. In early Chinese ideography it stood for the number 5.

As an Egyptian hieroglyph it meant to damage, divide, count, or break into parts.

Compare this with its use as multiplication sign from the beginning of the seventeenth century. The law of the polarity of meanings of elementary graphs applies.

A very similar X, is a rune used in some of the old Nordic rune alphabets. Its name is gif or geba, meaning gift, especially a gift from a chief to a loyal warrior or subject.

As a modern ideogram the diagonal cross has a wide spectrum of meanings from confrontation, annulment, cancellation, over opposing forces, hindrances, obstruction, to unknown, undecided, unsettled.

Here are a number of examples of the specific meanings of 'X' in different systems: a crossbreed between different species, varieties or races (in botany and biology), takes (chess), printing error (printing), I/we can not continue (ground-to-air emergency code), unknown number or multiply (mathematics), unknown person (Mr. X), and road obstruction (military).


The diagonal cross is sometimes used as a symbol for Christ, whose name in Greek begins with the Greek letter X. It also stands for the number 1,000 in ancient Greece, and even represented Chronos, the god of time, the planet Saturn and the god Saturn in Roman mythology.

According to tradition, St. Andrew was too humble to allow himself to be crucified on the same type of cross as Christ.

In seventeenth-century alchemy X denoted talc.

Ursula said...

Cute video: http://www.broadcaster.com/clip/1177

Anonymous said...

Thanx Ursula .... funny & informative on so many planes.

The title "x - the talc symbol" gave me a feeling (probably insecurity) that a suggestion was being made to remove "talc symbol" from the prose.
Instead it is like the W in Wolfram. How delightful!

What a neat dissertation on the letter X.

The architectural video brings back many a fond memory.
Quack, Quack!!

Anonymous said...

Hi Ursula,
Apparently you went to school with my Great Grandmother and rode a covered wagon the "wrong way" across the prairie to Miami to go to church next to Biscayne Bay.
Since you indicate an interest in math and teaching, if you don't already know him, there's a feller in California named Marvin Klotz.
You can google him or go to
http://www.myvirtualnetwork.com/mklotz/
My class had a question about the proof for zero factorial being one. He sent the proof from a colleague in India within 24 hours.
Quack, Quack!!

bulletholes said...

"got Wolfram"
"The Boy that Cried Wolfram"
"Slaughter the fatted Wolfram"
"Peter and the Wolfram"
"A Battering Wolfram"
"See Spot Wolfram"
'Where was Moses when the lights went out?"

Ursula said...

Neat Link, this looks like a puzzler for cartalk

Amaze your friends! Convince them that you're an idiot savant and not the just-plain-idiot they've always thought you were. Win bar bets! Learn how to mentally determine the day-of-the-week for any date in the year. The instructions in the text file will tell you how to do it. The program is just there to prove that the scheme really works.

We went to Savannah and biked over to the End of I-40... The sign said the other end was in San Jose.

amazing things happen

Anonymous said...

I say:

All of you are just plain QUACKERS!!!

meow, meow
rdkitty

Anonymous said...

Woo-Hoo, you found the Doomsday program!
Forrest Gump would say that biking I-40 would not be the same as running.
251 years old .... is that people years? I think Mittie might take issue.
Amazing things DO happen. I stubbed my TOE!!!!!!!!!!
Quack, Quack!!!

Anonymous said...

Hey sreve,
do you suppose there is a wolf random access memory? If so, would there have to be a Little Red Riding Hood random access memory?
Quack, Quack,

Anonymous said...

RDG/K,
We're not either just plain quackers. We're special .... Quackers Savant!!!!
You're gonna have the whole alphabet taken up if I'm not proactive...... Red Dirt Girl (RDG), Red Dirt Kitty (RDK) ... All I've got is Rod's Duck Farm (RDF)... I might have to come up with Rod's Ducks International (RDI) and Rod's Duck Enterprises (RDE).
Quack, Quack!!!

bulletholes said...

Does that make me a BM?

Ursula said...

Mittie will never forgive me for reviving Ursula, a heroinic name that she loved until she discovered it meant 'she-bear'. Around her neck of the woods, grizzlies were pretty despised.

RDG, not Quackers, Mennonites and Lutherans and they headed to Ireland, too. Probably donated red hair. Steve, maybe TWELT is a better choice.

bulletholes said...

You got me Ursula, but TWELT is already taken....

Anonymous said...

Oh and don't forget Red Dirt Poetry (RDP) or Red Dirt Kitty Cat Girl (RDKCG) so yep, quacker farmer - you definitely have some catching up to do......

Ursa Baby - (would that be major or minor?) I don't know nothin' 'bout no Luthers or Men......but I shore do know Quacking when I sees it......all that shaking and making sumpin outta nuttin

Steve - I think you've got CB covered, cowboy.....

meow, meow
rdkitty cat girl and her poetry....

Anonymous said...

Once somebody told me, "You remind me of something in-between Clint Eastwood and a Menonite preacher." At least I know where the Menonite preacher part comes from. That Grandma never told me bear stories, but she did say that people aren't supposed to eat carrots - carrots are for horses!
But TWELT ..... what is that??? The one the after eleventh?
Hang in there Red Dirt Female.
Quack, Quack!

Ursula said...

TWELT - The World Exploded Last Thursday

The carrots are a paradox, they were ok in stews, but you can turn orange from too many. Oatmeal was also a problem, I never had the kind that scratched your throat going when you swallowed though.

Ursula said...

RDG - nice poetry - is that your art work too?

Miers/Mires/Myers/Majer/Moyer are the only spellings I know of, but, spelling is a Big brother is watching you English sort of concept.

Anonymous said...

The world exploded last Thursday. Imagine that!
How 'bout the Meyers kinda Myers.
Elder son, Adam, married Amanda whose step-father is Stephen Myers.
Stephen lives in St. Louis.
Mittie's son, Charlie, liked ice cream. He called it Quagmire .... maybe similar to Quack-Myer?
When Mittie moved to Florida, their cattle died of mosquito inhalation. Ducks might have been a better plan!
Quack, Quack!