No nation can reform itself, as the English are now trying to do, by what their newspapers call "tremendous cheers." Reform is not joyous, but grievous; no single man can reform himself without stern suffering and stern working; how much less can a nation of men! Medea, when she made men young again, was wont to hew them in pieces with meat-axes; cast them into caldrons, and boil them for a length of time. How much handier could they have but done it by "tremendous cheers" alone!
No hammers fell, no ponderous axes rung; Like some tall palm the mystic fabric sprung. Majestic silence!
As former deputy head of the presidential administration, later deputy prime minister and then assistant to the President on foreign affairs, Surkov has directed Russian society like one great reality show. He claps once and a new political party appears. He claps again and creates Nashi, the Russian equivalent of the Hitler Youth, who are trained for street battles with potential prodemocracy supporters and burn books by unpatriotic writers on Red Square. As deputy head of the administration he would meet once a week with the heads of the television channels in his Kremlin office, instructing them on whom to attack and whom to defend, who is allowed on TV and who is banned, how the President is to be presented, and the very language and categories the country thinks and feels in. The Ostankino TV presenters, instructed by Surkov, pluck a theme (oligarchs, America, the Middle East) and speak for twenty minutes, hinting, nudging, winking, insinuating though rarely ever saying anything directly, repeating words like “them” and “the enemy” endlessly until they are imprinted on the mind. They repeat the great mantras of the era: the President is the President of “stability,” the antithesis to the era of “confusion and twilight” in the 1990s. “Stability”—the word is repeated again and again in a myriad seemingly irrelevant contexts until it echoes and tolls like a great bell and seems to mean everything good; anyone who opposes the President is an enemy of the great God of “stability.” “Effective manager,” a term quarried from Western corporate speak, is transmuted into a term to venerate the President as the most “effective manager” of all. “Effective” becomes the raison d’être for everything: Stalin was an “effective manager” who had to make sacrifices for the sake of being “effective.” The words trickle into the streets: “Our relationship is not effective” lovers tell each other when they break up. “Effective,” “stability”: no one can quite define what they actually mean, and as the city transforms and surges, everyone senses things are the very opposite of stable, and certainly nothing is “effective,” but the way Surkov and his puppets use them the words have taken on a life of their own and act like falling axes over anyone who is in any way disloyal.
On the other hand, the TCP camp also has a phrase for OSI people. There are lots of phrases. My favorite is `nitwit' -- and the rationale is the Internet philosophy has always been you have extremely bright, non-partisan researchers look at a topic, do world-class research, do several competing implementations, have a bake-off, determine what works best, write it down and make that the standard. The OSI view is entirely opposite. You take written contributions from a much larger community, you put the contributions in a room of committee people with, quite honestly, vast political differences and all with their own political axes to grind, and four years later you get something out, usually without it ever having been implemented once. So the Internet perspective is implement it, make it work well, then write it down, whereas the OSI perspective is to agree on it, write it down, circulate it a lot and now we'll see if anyone can implement it after it's an international standard and every vendor in the world is committed to it. One of those processes is backwards, and I don't think it takes a Lucasian professor of physics at Oxford to figure out which. -- Marshall Rose, "The Pied Piper of OSI"
About the use of language: it is impossible to sharpen a pencil with a blunt ax. It is equally vain to try to do it with ten blunt axes instead. -- Edsger Dijkstra
gyroscope, n.: A wheel or disk mounted to spin rapidly about an axis and also free to rotate about one or both of two axes perpindicular to each other and the axis of spin so that a rotation of one of the two mutually perpendicular axes results from application of torque to the other when the wheel is spinning and so that the entire apparatus offers considerable opposition depending on the angular momentum to any torque that would change the direction of the axis of spin. -- Webster's Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary
And all that the Lorax left here in this mess was a small pile of rocks with the one word, "unless." Whatever THAT meant, well, I just couldn't guess. That was long, long ago, and each day since that day, I've worried and worried and worried away. Through the years as my buildings have fallen apart, I've worried about it with all of my heart. "BUT," says the Oncler, "now that you're here, the word of the Lorax seems perfectly clear! UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better - it's not. So... CATCH!" cries the Oncler. He lets something fall. "It's a truffula seed. It's the last one of all! "You're in charge of the last of the truffula seeds. And truffula trees are what everyone needs. Plant a new truffula -- treat it with care. Give it clean water and feed it fresh air. Grow a forest -- protect it from axes that hack. Then the Lorax and all of his friends may come back!"
13:21. So that their shares, and their spades, and their forks, and their axes, were blunt, even to the goad, which was to be mended.
The archers' prize Achilles next proposed, Ten double and ten single axes, form'd Of steel convertible to arrow-points. He fix'd, far distant on the sands, the mast Of a brave bark cerulean-prow'd, to which With small cord fasten'd by the foot he tied A timorous dove, their mark at which to aim. Who strikes the dove, he conquers, and shall bear These double axes all into his tent. But who the cord alone, missing the bird, Successful less, he wins the single blades.
Like some huge many-limbed animal, the regiment began to prepare its lair and its food. One part of it dispersed and waded knee-deep through the snow into a birch forest to the right of the village, and immediately the sound of axes and swords, the crashing of branches, and merry voices could be heard from there. Another section amid the regimental wagons and horses which were standing in a group was busy getting out caldrons and rye biscuit, and feeding the horses. A third section scattered through the village arranging quarters for the staff officers, carrying out the French corpses that were in the huts, and dragging away boards, dry wood, and thatch from the roofs, for the campfires, or wattle fences to serve for shelter.
As he drove through the streets past the houses that had been burned down, he was surprised by the beauty of those ruins. The picturesqueness of the chimney stacks and tumble-down walls of the burned-out quarters of the town, stretching out and concealing one another, reminded him of the Rhine and the Colosseum. The cabmen he met and their passengers, the carpenters cutting the timber for new houses with axes, the women hawkers, and the shopkeepers, all looked at him with cheerful beaming eyes that seemed to say: "Ah, there he is! Let's see what will come of it!"
Its abiding place was in all things fitted to it. A narrow winding street, full of offence and stench, with other narrow winding streets diverging, all peopled by rags and nightcaps, and all smelling of rags and nightcaps, and all visible things with a brooding look upon them that looked ill. In the hunted air of the people there was yet some wild-beast thought of the possibility of turning at bay. Depressed and slinking though they were, eyes of fire were not wanting among them; nor compressed lips, white with what they suppressed; nor foreheads knitted into the likeness of the gallows-rope they mused about enduring, or inflicting. The trade signs (and they were almost as many as the shops) were, all, grim illustrations of Want. The butcher and the porkman painted up, only the leanest scrags of meat; the baker, the coarsest of meagre loaves. The people rudely pictured as drinking in the wine-shops, croaked over their scanty measures of thin wine and beer, and were gloweringly confidential together. Nothing was represented in a flourishing condition, save tools and weapons; but, the cutler's knives and axes were sharp and bright, the smith's hammers were heavy, and the gunmaker's stock was murderous. The crippling stones of the pavement, with their many little reservoirs of mud and water, had no footways, but broke off abruptly at the doors. The kennel, to make amends, ran down the middle of the street--when it ran at all: which was only after heavy rains, and then it ran, by many eccentric fits, into the houses. Across the streets, at wide intervals, one clumsy lamp was slung by a rope and pulley; at night, when the lamplighter had let these down, and lighted, and hoisted them again, a feeble grove of dim wicks swung in a sickly manner overhead, as if they were at sea. Indeed they were at sea, and the ship and crew were in peril of tempest.
The might of royal Teucer then arose, And, fellow-warrior of the King of Crete, Valiant Meriones. A brazen casque Received the lots; they shook them, and the lot Fell first to Teucer. He, at once, a shaft Sent smartly forth, but vow'd not to the King A hecatomb, all firstlings of the flock. He therefore (for Apollo greater praise Denied him) miss'd the dove, but struck the cord That tied her, at small distance from the knot, And with his arrow sever'd it. Upsprang The bird into the air, and to the ground Depending fell the cord. Shouts rent the skies. Then, all in haste, Meriones the bow Caught from his hand holding a shaft the while Already aim'd, and to Apollo vow'd A hecatomb, all firstlings of the flock. He eyed the dove aloft, under a cloud, And, while she wheel'd around, struck her beneath The pinion; through her and beyond her pass'd The arrow, and, returning, pierced the soil Fast by the foot of brave Meriones. She, perching on the mast again, her head Reclined, and hung her wide-unfolded wing, But, soon expiring, dropp'd and fell remote. Amazement seized the people. To his tent Meriones the ten best axes bore, And Teucer the inferior ten to his.
Enjolras, not seeing Marius among those who had taken refuge in the wine-shop, had the same idea. But they had reached a moment when each man has not the time to meditate on his own death. Enjolras fixed the bar across the door, and bolted it, and double-locked it with key and chain, while those outside were battering furiously at it, the soldiers with the butts of their muskets, the sappers with their axes. The assailants were grouped about that door. The siege of the wine-shop was now beginning.
20:19. When thou hast besieged a city a long time, and hath compassed it with bulwarks, to take it, thou shalt not cut down the trees that may be eaten of, neither shalt thou spoil the country round about with axes: for it is a tree, and not a man, neither can it increase the number of them that fight against thee.
73:5. And they knew not both in the going out and on the highest top. As with axes in a wood of trees,
The palace built by Picus, vast and proud, Supported by a hundred pillars stood, And round incompass'd with a rising wood. The pile o'erlook'd the town, and drew the sight; Surpris'd at once with reverence and delight. There kings receiv'd the marks of sov'reign pow'r; In state the monarchs march'd; the lictors bore Their awful axes and the rods before. Here the tribunal stood, the house of pray'r, And here the sacred senators repair; All at large tables, in long order set, A ram their off'ring, and a ram their meat. Above the portal, carv'd in cedar wood, Plac'd in their ranks, their godlike grandsires stood; Old Saturn, with his crooked scythe, on high; And Italus, that led the colony; And ancient Janus, with his double face, And bunch of keys, the porter of the place. There good Sabinus, planter of the vines, On a short pruning hook his head reclines, And studiously surveys his gen'rous wines; Then warlike kings, who for their country fought, And honorable wounds from battle brought. Around the posts hung helmets, darts, and spears, And captive chariots, axes, shields, and bars, And broken beaks of ships, the trophies of their wars. Above the rest, as chief of all the band, Was Picus plac'd, a buckler in his hand; His other wav'd a long divining wand. Girt in his Gabin gown the hero sate, Yet could not with his art avoid his fate: For Circe long had lov'd the youth in vain, Till love, refus'd, converted to disdain: Then, mixing pow'rful herbs, with magic art, She chang'd his form, who could not change his heart; Constrain'd him in a bird, and made him fly, With party-color'd plumes, a chatt'ring pie.
46:22. Her voice shall sound like brass, for they shall hasten with an army, and with axes they shall come against her, as hewers of wood.
So saying, he call'd anew their sorrow forth, And rosy-palm'd Aurora found them all Mourning afresh the pitiable dead. Then royal Agamemnon call'd abroad Mules and mule-drivers from the tents in haste To gather wood. Uprose a valiant man, Friend of the virtuous Chief Idomeneus, Meriones, who led them to the task. They, bearing each in hand his sharpen'd axe And twisted cord, thence journey'd forth, the mules Driving before them; much uneven space They measured, hill and dale, right onward now, And now circuitous; but at the groves Arrived at length, of Ida fountain-fed, Their keen-edged axes to the towering oaks Dispatchful they applied; down fell the trees With crash sonorous. Splitting, next, the trunks, They bound them on the mules; they, with firm hoofs The hill-side stamping, through the thickets rush'd Desirous of the plain. Each man his log (For so the armor-bearer of the King Of Crete, Meriones, had them enjoin'd) Bore after them, and each his burthen cast Down on the beach regular, where a tomb Of ample size Achilles for his friend Patroclus had, and for himself, design'd.
Who gave them out, whence they last came, where they began, through what agency they crookedly quivered and jerked, scores at a time, over the heads of the crowd, like a kind of lightning, no eye in the throng could have told; but, muskets were being distributed--so were cartridges, powder, and ball, bars of iron and wood, knives, axes, pikes, every weapon that distracted ingenuity could discover or devise. People who could lay hold of nothing else, set themselves with bleeding hands to force stones and bricks out of their places in walls. Every pulse and heart in Saint Antoine was on high-fever strain and at high-fever heat. Every living creature there held life as of no account, and was demented with a passionate readiness to sacrifice it.
Again his radiant spear Sarpedon hurl'd, But miss'd Patroclus; the innocuous point, O'erflying his left shoulder, pass'd beyond. Then with bright lance Patroclus in his turn Assail'd Sarpedon, nor with erring course The weapon sped or vain, but pierced profound His chest, enclosure of the guarded heart. As falls an oak, poplar, or lofty pine With new-edged axes on the mountains hewn Right through, for structure of some gallant bark, So fell Sarpedon stretch'd his steeds before And gnash'd his teeth and clutch'd the bloody dust, And as a lion slays a tawny bull Leader magnanimous of all the herd; Beneath the lion's jaws groaning he dies; So, leader of the shielded Lycians groan'd Indignant, by Patroclus slain, the bold Sarpedon, and his friend thus, sad, bespake.
So saying, the Hero dragg'd him by his heel Through all the furious fight. His death to avenge Asius on foot before his steeds advanced, For them, where'er he moved, his charioteer Kept breathing ever on his neck behind. With fierce desire the heart of Asius burn'd To smite Idomeneus, who with his lance Him reaching first, pierced him beneath the chin Into his throat, and urged the weapon through. He fell, as some green poplar falls, or oak, Or lofty pine, by naval artists hewn With new-edged axes on the mountain's side. So, his teeth grinding, and the bloody dust Clenching, before his chariot and his steeds Extended, Asius lay. His charioteer (All recollection lost) sat panic-stunn'd, Nor dared for safety turn his steeds to flight. Him bold Antilochus right through the waist Transpierced; his mail sufficed not, but the spear Implanted in his midmost bowels stood. Down from his seat magnificent he fell Panting, and young Antilochus the steeds Drove captive thence into the host of Greece. Then came Deiphobus by sorrow urged For Asius, and, small interval between, Hurl'd at Idomeneus his glittering lance; But he, foreseeing its approach, the point Eluded, cover'd whole by his round shield Of hides and brass by double belt sustain'd, And it flew over him, but on his targe Glancing, elicited a tinkling sound. Yet left it not in vain his vigorous grasp, But pierced the liver of Hypsenor, son Of Hippasus; he fell incontinent, And measureless exulting in his fall Deiphobus with mighty voice exclaim'd.
Thus Drances; and his words so well persuade The rest impower'd, that soon a truce is made. Twelve days the term allow'd: and, during those, Latians and Trojans, now no longer foes, Mix'd in the woods, for fun'ral piles prepare To fell the timber, and forget the war. Loud axes thro' the groaning groves resound; Oak, mountain ash, and poplar spread the ground; First fall from high; and some the trunks receive In loaden wains; with wedges some they cleave.
"On the first floor, hold your axes in readiness to cut the staircase. Have you them?"
Prism. This consists of four faces parallel to the vertical axis and intercepting the horizontal axes in the lengths a and b or in any multiples of these; the indices are therefore {110}, {210}, {120} or {hko}. Entry: HOLOHEDRAL
An axis passing through the centre O and the middle points d of two opposite edges of the octahedron (fig. 4), i.e. parallel to the edges of the octahedron, is a dyad axis of symmetry. About this axis there may be rotation of 180°, and only twice in a complete revolution of 360° (= 180° × 2) is the crystal brought into interchangeable positions. There being six pairs of parallel edges on an octahedron, there are consequently six dyad axes of symmetry. Entry: 3
In monoclinic crystals only one vibration-direction has a fixed position within the crystal, being parallel to the ortho-axis (i.e. perpendicular to the plane of symmetry or the plane (010)). The other two vibration-directions lie in the plane (010), but they may vary in position for light of different colours and at different temperatures. In addition to dispersion of the optic axes there may thus, in crystals of this system, be also "dispersion of the bisectrices." The latter may be of one or other of three kinds, according to which of the three vibration-directions coincides with the ortho-axis of the crystal. When the acute bisectrix is fixed in position, the optic axial planes for different colours may be crossed, and the interference figure will then be symmetrical with respect to a point only ("crossed dispersion"). When the obtuse bisectrix is fixed, the axial planes may be inclined to one another, and the interference figure is symmetrical only about a line which is perpendicular to the axial planes ("horizontal dispersion"). Finally, when the vibration-direction corresponding to the refractive index ß, or the "third mean line," has a fixed position, the optic axial plane lies in the plane (010), but the acute bisectrix may vary in position in this plane; the interference figure will then be symmetrical only about a line joining the optic axes ("inclined dispersion"). Examples of substances exhibiting these three kinds of dispersion are borax, orthoclase and gypsum respectively. In orthoclase and gypsum, however, the optic axial angle gradually diminishes as the crystals are heated, and after passing through a uniaxial position they open out in a plane at right angles to the one they previously occupied; the character of the dispersion thus becomes reversed in the two examples quoted. When examined in parallel light between crossed nicols monoclinic crystals will give straight extinction only in faces and sections which are perpendicular to the plane of symmetry (or the plane (010)); in all other faces and sections the extinction-directions will be inclined to the edges of the crystal. The angles between these directions and edges are readily measured, and, being dependent on the optical orientation of the crystal, they are often characteristic constants of the substance (see, e.g., PLAGIOCLASE). Entry: 5
The oldest rocks, the gneisses and schists of the Archean period, form nearly the whole of the Central Plateau, and are also exposed in the axes of the folds in Brittany. The Central Plateau has probably been a land mass ever since this period, but the rest of the country was flooded by the Palaeozoic sea. The earlier deposits of that sea now rise to the surface in Brittany, the Ardennes, the Montagne Noire and the Cévennes, and in all these regions they are intensely folded. Towards the close of the Palaeozoic era France had become a part of a great continent; in the north the Coal Measures of the Boulonnais and the Nord were laid down in direct connexion with those of Belgium and England, while in the Central Plateau the Coal Measures were deposited in isolated and scattered basins. The Permian and Triassic deposits were also, for the most part, of continental origin; but with the formation of the Rhaetic beds the sea again began to spread, and throughout the greater part of the Jurassic period it covered nearly the whole of the country except the Central Plateau, Brittany and the Ardennes. Towards the end of the period, however, during the deposition of the Portlandian beds, the sea again retreated, and in the early part of the Cretaceous period was limited (in France) to the catchment basins of the Saône and Rhône--in the Paris basin the contemporaneous deposits were chiefly estuarine and were confined to the northern and eastern rim. Beginning with the Aptian and Albian the sea again gradually spread over the country and attained its maximum in the early part of the Senonian epoch, when once more the ancient massifs of the Central Plateau, Brittany and the Ardennes, alone rose above the waves. There was still, however, a well-marked difference between the deposits of the northern and the southern parts of France, the former consisting of chalk, as in England, and the latter of sandstones and limestones with Hippurites. During the later part of the Cretaceous period the sea gradually retreated and left the whole country dry. Entry: FRANCE
These equations are applicable to any dynamical system whatever. If we now apply them to the case of a rigid body moving about a fixed point O, and make Ox, Oy, Oz coincide with the principal axes of inertia at O, we have [lambda], [mu], [nu] = Ap, Bq, Cr, whence Entry: 21
where [theta] is the angle between the axis of the magnet and the direction of the force. In fig. 4 S´N´ is a small magnet of moment M´, and SN a distant fixed magnet of moment M; the axes of SN and S´N´ make angles of [theta] and [phi] respectively with the line through their middle points. It can be deduced from (17), (12) and (13) that the couple on S´N´ due to SN, and tending to increase [phi], is Entry: MH