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| The Potomac Tavern
An electronic community for Washingtonians in fact and spirit
MsDebby wrote: decuman
PRONUNCIATION:
(DEK-yoo-muhn)
MEANING:
adjective: Very large.
ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin decumanus, variant of decimanus (of the tenth), from decimus (tenth), from decem (ten). The word was often applied to waves from the belief that every tenth wave is greater than the others. The word also referred to the main gate of a military camp in ancient Rome. This gate faced away from the enemy and the tenth cohort of the legion was stationed there. A related word is decimate and a dean is, literally speaking, a chief of ten.
USAGE:
"The lover whose soul shaken is
In some decuman billow of bliss."
Francis Thompson; The Way of a Maid; c. 1890.
A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
Every man thinks God is on his side. The rich and powerful know he is. -Jean Anouilh, dramatist (1910-1987)
Mark D Hamill wrote: Congratulations in finding a new job, Debby. That's great, considering the dour economy. Have fun in Texas.
Mark D Hamill wrote: Played by Sacha Baron Cohen, a.k.a. Borat.
Mark D Hamill wrote: I took home the peace lily in my office. I think it needs to be repotted. We got it when my mother died. I'm glad it at least is thriving. I've maintained it with my black thumb somehow these last 3 1/2 years.
Mark D Hamill wrote: Kat, look for a topic on Frank under Joys and Concerns. I posted a picture of his grave marker, taken in March.
Mark D Hamill wrote: One of the funniest and truest YouTube videos I have seen in a while.
Link
Mark D Hamill wrote: Just like their Zune player, or so I have been told.
Mark D Hamill wrote: Mike: Oh the humanity!
Dimes were legal for payment of obligations prior to 1933, but only for transactions under $10.
What do you call a group of kangaroos?
Mark D Hamill wrote: I found this article in the news about the possibility of Warp drive interesting.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20090506/sc_space/startrekswarpdrivenotimpossible
Quote: Some physicists say the faster-than-light travel technology may one day enable humans to jet between stars for weekend getaways. Clearly it won't be an easy task. The science is complex, but not strictly impossible, according to some researchers studying how to make it happen.
The trick seems to be to find some other means of propulsion besides rockets, which would never be able to accelerate a ship to velocities faster than that of light, the fundamental speed limit set by Einstein's General Relativity.
Luckily for us, this speed limit only applies within space-time (the continuum of three dimensions of space plus one of time that we live in). While any given object can't travel faster than light speed within space-time, theory holds, perhaps space-time itself could travel.
"The idea is that you take a chunk of space-time and move it," said Marc Millis, former head of NASA's Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Project. "The vehicle inside that bubble thinks that it's not moving at all. It's the space-time that's moving."
The article goes on to suggest that when the Big Bang occurred it is likely that for a while anyhow the universe moved faster than the speed of light.
Sign me up for a starship ride. Meanwhile, I will have to contend myself with the Star Trek movie this weekend.
Mark D Hamill wrote: I confess I haven't looked into the methodology used to create these maps, but presumably there is some modicum of science behind them. Yeah, I noticed that Mississippi in particular was high on the lust meter. Maybe it is due to all that Biblically-based oppression of natural sex urges. It must be environmental because across the population I have to think we all basically average out.
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