The posture, garb, and idea of the Statue of Liberty was based off the Colossus of Rhodes (a statue of Helios that is widely considered as one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World). The statue was made around BC 285, and was 107 feet high.
The sketches and illustrations of the statue are really badass.
In many of the depictions, in order to enter the city, you have to go under the spread legs of the statue and look up at a giant perineum.
I just read a recurring editorial titled “Ask The Rabbi.” This is what was silly (other than the fact that I just spent some time reading “Ask The Rabbi”). Some of the more traditionalist Jews abstain from writing the English word “God,” instead choosing to write “G-d” or “Gd.” However, there is no traditional Jewish law that prohibits a person from writing “God” in any language other than Hebrew.
I just don’t get out G-d is different than God. An “o” is a symbol just as much “-” is. I suppose it’s a sign of respect. But to me it looks more like an algebra problem.
G minus D equals GOD. G= GOD + D G= (GO+1)D [G/(GO+1)]= D
Wow….and I thought the low point of my day was reading “Ask The Rabbi.”
It’s kind of embarrassing, but I feel like sometimes people forget that the Bible wasn’t written in English. The Old Testament was written mainly in Hebrew. When Jerusalem was taken over by Babylonians, the Jews were exiled to Babylon, where they learned Aramaic. For this reason, some of the books were written in Aramaic, until eventually the whole text was translated into Aramaic. Then the Old Testament was translated into Septuagint Greek. The New Testament was written in Greek, and used the Septuagint Greek translation when referencing the Old Testament. From there, the Greek was translated into Latin, among other languages. The first English Bible was translated from the Latin translation of the Greek translation. Later, the King James Bible was written in English translated from the “original” Hebrew and Greek texts. Since then more translations have been done, which claim to use the “original” manuscripts. Nowadays, there are over 200,000 variations of the New Testament. Yes, a variation could mean something as small as an omitted word, or an alternate spelling. But when people cling to a text as literal, one word can have huge implications. This background sets the stage for tomorrow’s post…
About the world’s heaviest pumpkin!!!!!!!
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The word “stroke”, in the medical sense (as in apoplectic seizure), is a shortening of what was originally “The Stroke of God’s Hand.” You would think the Stroke of God’s Hand would be a little less miserable than that.
The most hilarious planet, Uranus, is named after the Greek god of the sky, Ouranos. On this astronomy website, several astronomers discussed the pronunciation of the planet. Dr. Pamela Gay notes, “The safest way, the way that’s least likely to get us made fun of by any small children is to say Uranus (UR-uh-nis), but there’s also the famous ur-ANUS way of saying it.” I wonder how Dr. Gay pronounces her last name to avoid getting made fun of by the said small children.
