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USAUKAlliesForever liked a video
(2 months ago)
"I take the liberty of observing that you are not a true disciple of our master Epicurus, in indulging the indolence to which you say you are ...
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"I take the liberty of observing that you are not a true disciple of our master Epicurus, in indulging the indolence to which you say you are yielding. One of his canons, you know, was that "that indulgence which presents a greater pleasure, or produces a greater pain, is to be avoided." Your love of repose will lead, in its progress, to a suspension of healthy exercise, a relaxation of mind, an indifference to everything around you, and finally to a debility of body, and hebetude of mind, the farthest of all things from the happiness which the well-regulated indulgences of Epicurus ensure; fortitude, you know, is one of his four cardinal virtues. That teaches us to meet and surmount difficulties; not to fly from them, like cowards; and to fly, too, in vain, for they will meet and arrest us at every turn of our road....
[A paragraph follows, inviting Short and his friend Correa to Monticello, with some news of the progress at the University]
I will place under this a syllabus of the doctrines of Epicurus, somewhat in the lapidary style, which I wrote some twenty years ago; a like one of the philosophy of Jesus, of nearly the same age, is too long to be copied. Vale, et tibi persuade carissimum te esse mihi."
- LETTER: Thomas Jefferson to William Short - October 31, 1819
http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/jefflet...
{I don't mean to bore my subscribers with wierd stuff like this, but it is all history, and in this case it is directly connected to the founding of the United States of America, and because of that, it should interest us.
jbranstetter04}
That was only the beginning. When he read the poem initially, Greenblatt recalls, he was amazed at its apparent prescience. "So much that is in Einstein or Freud or Darwin or Marx was there," he says. "I was flabbergasted." And indeed, from Galileo to Darwin to Einstein, who paid tribute to Lucretius in the preface to a 1924 translation of the poet's work, science would begin to describe empirically a universe of atomic particles with behaviors dictated by forces independent of the divine. Meanwhile, Greenblatt finds Lucretius in the very roots of the American tradition: "I am an Epicurean," proclaimed Thomas Jefferson, the owner of at least five editions of De rerum natura, who put his stamp on a Declaration of Independence emphasizing the "pursuit of happiness."
In the end, Greenblatt acknowledges, history is complicated—there is not a straight line between Lucretius and the modern world. "And yet the vital connection is there," he writes. "Hidden behind the worldview I recognize as my own is an ancient poem, a poem once lost, apparently irrevocably, and then found."
http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/07/sw...
Lucretius - Roman Poet and Philosopher Titus Lucretius Carus
Titus Lucretius Carus (c. 98-55 B.C.) was a Roman Epicurean epic poet who wrote De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things). De rerum natura is an epic, written in 6 books, which explains life and the world in terms of Epicurean principles and Atomism. Lucretius may have died before De rerum natura was finished.
About Epicurus
Epicurus (341-270 B.C.) was born in Samos and died at Athens. He studied at Plato's Academy when it was run by Xenocrates. Later, when he joined his family on Colophon, Epicurus studied under Nausiphanes, who introduced him to the philosophy of Democritus. In 306/7 Epicurus bought a house in Athens. It was in its garden that he taught his philosophy. Epicurus and his followers, who included slaves and women, secluded themselves from the life of the city.
The Virtue of Pleasure
Epicurus and his philosophy of pleasure have been controversial for over 2000 years. One reason is our tendency to reject pleasure as a moral good. We usually think of charity, compassion, humility, wisdom, honor, justice, and other virtues as morally good, while pleasure is, at best, morally neutral, but for Epicurus, behavior in pursuit of pleasure assured an upright life.
"It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when, for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life."
Epicurus, from Principal Doctrines
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/ph...
Here is where you can watch the entire Charlie Rose interview of Stephen Greenblatt:
http://www.charlierose.com/view/inter...
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USAUKAlliesForever liked a video
(3 months ago)
Are we ready for Cyber War? Will a digital Cyber War result in hundreds of millions of deaths both here in the United States and the rest of the wo...
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Are we ready for Cyber War? Will a digital Cyber War result in hundreds of millions of deaths both here in the United States and the rest of the world? Are you ready for it? Can you survive without a grocery store and electricity? If not, then you had better get yourself to where you can. If not, then you will be one of the casualties of this next war.
Jbranstetter04
U.S. fears science fiction-style sabotage in new wave of cyber attacks
When a computer attack hobbled Iran's unfinished nuclear power plant last year, it was assumed to be a military-grade strike, the handiwork of elite hacking professionals with nation-state backing.
Yet for all its science-fiction sophistication, key elements have now been replicated in laboratory settings by security experts with little time, money or specialized skill.
It is an alarming development that shows how technical advances are eroding the barrier that has long prevented computer assaults from leaping from the digital to the physical world.
The techniques demonstrated in recent months highlight the danger to operators of power plants, water systems and other critical infrastructure around the world.
Scott Borg is director of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit, a non-profit group that helps the U.S. government prepare for future attacks
'Things that sounded extremely unlikely a few years ago are now coming along,' he said.
While the experiments have been performed in laboratory settings, and the findings presented at security conferences or in technical papers, the danger of another real-world attack such as the one on Iran is profound.
The team behind the so-called Stuxnet worm that was used to attack the Iranian nuclear facility may still be active. New malicious software with some of Stuxnet's original code and behaviour has surfaced, suggesting ongoing reconnaissance against industrial control systems.
And attacks on critical infrastructure are increasing. The Idaho National Laboratory, home to secretive defence labs intended to protect the nation's power grids, water systems and other critical infrastructure, has responded to triple the number of computer attacks from clients this year over last, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has revealed.
For years, ill-intentioned hackers have dreamed of plaguing the world's infrastructure with a brand of sabotage reserved for Hollywood. They've mused about wreaking havoc in industrial settings by burning out power plants, bursting oil and gas pipelines, or stalling manufacturing plants.
But a key roadblock has prevented them from causing widespread destruction: they've lacked a way to take remote control of the electronic 'controller' boxes that serve as the nerve centres for heavy machinery.
The attack on Iran changed all that. Now, security experts - and presumably, malicious hackers - are racing to find weaknesses. They've found a slew of vulnerabilities.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...
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USAUKAlliesForever liked a video
(4 months ago)
History of Firefighting Vehicles
Ctesibius of Alexandria is credited with inventing the first fire pump around the second century B.C. but the idea ...
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History of Firefighting Vehicles
Ctesibius of Alexandria is credited with inventing the first fire pump around the second century B.C. but the idea was lost, ironically, in the burning of Alexandria. The fire pump was reinvented in Europe during the 1500s, reportedly used in Augsburg in 1518 and Nuremberg in 1657. A book of 1655 inventions mentions a steam engine (called fire engine) pump used to "raise a column of water 12 m," but there was no mention of whether it was portable.
Colonial laws in America required each house to have a bucket of water on the front stoop (especially at night) in case of fire, for the initial "bucket brigade" that would throw the water at fires. Philadelphia obtained a hand-pumped fire engine in 1719, years after Boston's 1654 model appeared there, made by Joseph Jencks, but before New York's two engines arrived from London.
By 1730, Newham, in London, had made successful fire engines; the first used in New York City (in 1731) were of his make (six years before formation of the NYC volunteer fire department). The amount of manpower and skill necessary for firefighting prompted the institution of an organized fire company by Benjamin Franklin in 1737. Thomas Lote built the first fire engine made in America in 1743.
Ericsson made a similar one in New York in 1840. John Ericsson is credited with building the first American steam-powered fire engine.
Until the mid-19th Century most fire engines were maneuvered by men, but the introduction of horse-drawn fire engines considerably improved the response time to incidents. The first self-propelled steam engine was built in New York in 1841. It was the target of sabotage by firefighters and its use was discontinued, and motorized fire engines did not become commonplace until the early 20th Century.
For many years firefighters sat on the sides of the fire engines, or even stood on the rear of the vehicles, exposed to the elements. While this arrangement enhanced response time, it proved to be both uncomfortable and dangerous (some firefighters were thrown to their deaths when their fire engines made sharp turns on the road), and today nearly all fire engines have fully enclosed seatings for their crews.
Early pumpers
Early pumpers used cisterns as a source of water. Water was later put into wooden pipes under the streets and a "fire plug" was pulled out of the top of the pipe when a suction hose was to be inserted.
Later systems incorporated pressurized fire hydrants, where the pressure was increased when a fire alarm was sounded. This was found to be harmful to the system, and unreliable, and today's valved hydrant systems are typically kept under pressure at all times, although additional pressure may be added when needed.
Pressurized hydrants eliminate much of the work in obtaining water for pumping through the engine and into the attack hoses. Many rural fire engines still rely upon cisterns or other sources for drafting water into the pumps........
Read more here: http://www.amazing-planet.net/firefig...
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NO SURRENDER
We shall always be allies!
God bless our nations!
ur propaganda is complete bullshit and totally seethru
See I am from the south of Ireland however I don't support terrorism in any form, i.e IRA or Loyalist terrorists, and I don't need to make silly little utube channels pretending to be an American in order to try and sway peoples opinions of ur terrorist group the loyalist terrorist who bomb and murder just like the IRA, for ur infomation many millions of Irish Americans fight for peace in the military.