Thursday, November 3, 2011

obscurantism \uhb-SKYOORr-uhn-tiz-uhm\, noun:

1. Opposition to the increase and spread of knowledge.

2. Deliberate obscurity or evasion of clarity.

Obscurantism originally comes from the Latin root obscur meaning “dark” and the suffix -ant which turned a verb into a noun (as in the word servant), so the word literally meant “one that makes dark.”

Damn nature you scary

• Expression of fear and awe at the wonderment of the animal kingdom.

Look at that cheetah go...Damn nature you scary!

Trivia

What is a cross between a camel and a llama called?

• A cama. Because of the great size difference between the camel and the llama, artificial insemination was used to produce the first cama, a male named Rama, in 1998.

History

• The Times of India: the world's most widely circulated daily newspaper was founded under the name The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce (1838)
• Opium War: first broke out between China and Britain (1839)
• US presidential election of 1948: the Chicago Tribune reported erroneously that "Dewey Defeats Truman"
• Sputnik II: the Soviet Union sent the first animal, a dog named Laika, into space; Laika died in orbit (1957)
• Iran-contra affair: Reagan administration scandal came to light when a Lebanese periodical revealed that the US was selling weapons to Iran (1986)

Birthdays

• Aria Giovanni (34): adult model / t3h pr0n
• Stephen Fuller Austin (1793-1836): pioneer who colonized Texas
• André Malraux (1901-1976): writer and politician, Man's Fate; plus, writers William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878) and James Reston (1909-1995)
• Walker Evans (1903-1975): American photographer
• Bob Feller (93): legendary pitcher and MLB hall-of-famer; plus, tennis hall-of-famer Roy Emerson (75)
• Charles Bronson (1921-2003): tough-guy actor; also, actors Jeremy Brett (1933-1995), Ken Berry (78), Roseanne Barr (59), Kate Capshaw (58), Kathy Kinney (57) and Dolph Lundgren (52)
• Dennis Miller (58): conservative talk show host and Saturday Night Live alum
• Adam Ant (57): British face-painted rock singer

Read more: http://www.answers.com/