Postmode

This gives me a little bit of hope about the atrocities that are going on in Iraq right now. I want to see us get out of there. Of course, it doesn’t mean the domestic situation here in the States will be any better since we have a tyrant at hand, but it’s good to see the Iraqi people making advances in their domestic situation.

I have long contended (privately, but now publicly) that the greatest thoughts come while taking a BM (bowel movement, in the vernacular). More support for this comes from Luther, perhaps:

There is also some debate over exactly where Luther’s insight took place. A somewhat cryptic remark in one of Luther’s personal recollections has been the subject of much interest. Luther wrote of being granted his theological insight in a room identified by the Latin abbreviation cl. What could this mean? One obvious interpretation would be that the abbreviation is to be understood as cloaca - a semipolite Latin term for “latrine” or “privy.” This possibility has provoked considerable discussion. For example, John Osborne’s 1961 play Luther represents Luther as achieving theological insight at the same moment as he experienced relief from a long-standing bout of constipation.

This might initially seem somewhat improbable. Nevertheless, Luther himself saw a link between Satanic temptation and latrines, even if that connection might well be puzzling to most modern readers. In a recollection dating from Christmas 1531, Luther quotes a popular poem concerning the monk who is caught by the devil reading his prayers in the latrine:

Devil: Monk on the latrine!
You shouldn’t be reading matins here!
Monk: I am purging my bowels
While worshiping almighty God.
You can have what goes down,
While God gets what goes up.

- Alister McGrath, In The Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed a Nation, a Language, and a Culture

Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have … The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.

- Thomas Jefferson

More evidence that our founding fathers thought it highly wise to maintain a highly limited government?

And I don’t mean King George.

Anonymous Attack Sites at The Waterspout.

…how many people understand hexadecimal?

Answer?
57005

Don’t get it?
Most of us have been taught to count exclusively in what is known as a “base 10″ system. What this means is that our ones spot in the number (if you don’t remember using this terminology, in “51″ and “10001″ the ones spot is equal to 1 - the next spot to the left being the tens spot, then the hundreds spot, then then the thousands spot, then the ten-thousands spot and so on and so forth) go up to 10 values. We have ten digits, or numbers, to represents values in each place. So each spot can have 0-9 as a value. Then, when we go past the tenth digit, we reset the particular spot to the lowest value (0), add another spot to the left and start with the second value (1).

Let’s change things up a bit, though. Let’s say that we want to have 11 values in each spot. This would be a base 11 counting system. We can use any symbol to represent this new value - say, “A”. So our counting would go “0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 1A, 20.” With the number “20″ having a value of 22 in a base 10 system.

This is how hexademical works, just it’s a base 16 system (”decimal” = 10, “hexa” = 6 - so, 6 plus 10 = 16 = hexadecimal). The counting order and values in hexadecimal are: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F. Ever tried to mess with colors on your Myspace page, bulletins, or messages? You might have entered a value something like this: “#00FF00″, which is the hexadecimal value for bright green (if you want to know more about how the hexidecimal color system works, let me know and I’ll write something up on it).

So, what is DEAD? A number, not a word. Hence the confusion you may have had. Translate DEAD into base 10 (also known as “decimal”) and you get 57005.