expediency

expediency
n. pl. expediencies

1. Appropriateness to the purpose at hand; fitness.
2. Adherence to self-serving means: an ambitious politician, guided by expediency rather than principle.
3. A means; an expedient.
4. Obsolete Speed; haste.

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Gifted Children

Gifted children are not magically gifted with knowledge and expertise; they are gifted with the ability to learn! - Delusional, 27/4/2012

gird your loins

gird
v. gird·ed or girt (gûrt), gird·ing, girds
v.tr.

1. 1. To encircle with a belt or band.
   2. To fasten or secure (clothing, for example) with a belt or band.
   3. To surround. See Synonyms at surround.
2. To equip or endow.
3. To prepare (oneself) for action.

v.intr.

To prepare for action: "Men still spoke of peace but girded more sternly for war" (W. Bruce Lincoln).

Idiom: gird (up) (one's) loins

To summon up one's inner resources in preparation for action.

[Middle English girden, from Old English gyrdan; see gher-1 in Indo-European roots.]

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Brandon Lee - life philosophy

In August of 1992, Bruce Lee biographer John Little asked Brandon Lee what his philosophy in life was, and he replied, "Eat—or die!" Brandon later spoke of the martial arts and self-knowledge:

Well, I would say this: when you move down the road towards mastery of the martial arts—and you know, you are constantly moving down that road—you end up coming up against these barriers inside yourself that will attempt to stop you from continuing to pursue the mastery of the martial arts. And these barriers are such things as when you come up against your own limitations, when you come up against the limitations of your will, your ability, your natural ability, your courage, how you deal with success—and failure as well, for that matter. And as you overcome each one of these barriers, you end up learning something about yourself. And sometimes, the things you learn about yourself can, to the individual, seem to convey a certain spiritual sense along with them.

...It's funny, every time you come up against a true barrier to your progress, you are a child again. And it's a very interesting experience to be reduced, once again, to the level of knowing nothing about what you're doing. I think there's a lot of room for learning and growth when that happens—if you face it head on and don't choose to say, "Ah, screw that! I'm going to do something else!" We reduce ourselves at a certain point in our lives to kind of solely pursuing things that we already know how to do. You know, because you don't want to have that experience of not knowing what you're doing and being an amateur again. And I think that's rather unfortunate. It's so much more interesting and usually illuminating to put yourself in a situation where you don't know what's going to happen, than to do something again that you already know essentially what the outcome will be within three or four points either way.

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Brandon Lee

In an interview just prior to his death, Lee quoted a passage from Paul Bowles' book The Sheltering Sky that he had chosen for his wedding invitations; it is now inscribed on his tombstone:

Because we don't know when we will die, we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well. And yet everything happens only a certain number of times, and a very small number really. How many more times will you remember a certain afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that is so deeply a part of your being that you can't even conceive of your life without it? Perhaps four, or five times more? Perhaps not even that. How many more times will you watch the full moon rise? Perhaps twenty. And yet it all seems limitless...

source

Interesting Words

sinophile
n.

One who admires China, its people, or its culture

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perspicacity
n.

Acuteness of perception, discernment, or understanding

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adversary
n. pl. ad·ver·sar·ies

1. An opponent; an enemy.
2. Adversary The Devil; Satan. Often used with the.

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protagonist
n.

The main character in a drama or other literary work

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iconoclast
n.

1. One who attacks and seeks to overthrow traditional or popular ideas or institutions
2. One who destroys sacred religious images

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affliction
n.

1. A condition of pain, suffering, or distress
2. A cause of pain, suffering, or distress

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plebiscite
n.

1. A direct vote in which the entire electorate is invited to accept or refuse a proposal
2. A vote in which a population exercises the right of national self-determination.

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skeptical
adj.

1. Marked by or given to doubt; questioning: a skeptical attitude; skeptical of political promises.
2. Relating to or characteristic of skeptics or skepticism.

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salacious
adj.

1. Appealing to or stimulating sexual desire; lascivious.
2. Lustful; bawdy.

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despot
n.

1. A ruler with absolute power.
2. A person who wields power oppressively; a tyrant.
3. 1. A Byzantine emperor or prince.
   2. An Eastern Orthodox bishop or patriarch.

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positivisms
n.

1. Philosophy
   1. A doctrine contending that sense perceptions are the only admissible basis of human knowledge and precise thought.
   2. The application of this doctrine in logic, epistemology, and ethics.
   3. The system of Auguste Comte designed to supersede theology and metaphysics and depending on a hierarchy of the sciences, beginning with mathematics and culminating in sociology.
   4. Any of several doctrines or viewpoints, often similar to Comte's, that stress attention to actual practice over consideration of what is ideal: "Positivism became the 'scientific' base for authoritarian politics, especially in Mexico and Brazil" (Raymond Carr).
2. The state or quality of being positive.

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locum
n.

Someone (physician or clergyman) who substitutes temporarily for another member of the same profession

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olympic
adj

1. (General Sporting Terms) of or relating to the Olympic Games
2. of or relating to ancient Olympia

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miasma
n. pl. mi·as·mas or mi·as·ma·ta

1. A noxious atmosphere or influence: "The family affection, the family expectations, seemed to permeate the atmosphere . . . like a coiling miasma" (Louis Auchincloss).
2. 1. A poisonous atmosphere formerly thought to rise from swamps and putrid matter and cause disease.
   2. A thick vaporous atmosphere or emanation: wreathed in a miasma of cigarette smoke.

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miasma
n pl -mata [-m?t?], -mas

1. an unwholesome or foreboding atmosphere
2. pollution in the atmosphere, esp noxious vapours from decomposing organic matter

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pediatrics
n. (used with a sing. verb)

The branch of medicine that deals with the care of infants and children and the treatment of their diseases.

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dire

1. j (usually prenominal)

1. Also direful disastrous; fearful
2. desperate; urgent a dire need
3. foreboding disaster; ominous a dire warning

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recalcitrant
adj.

Marked by stubborn resistance to and defiance of authority or guidance. See Synonyms at unruly.

n.

A recalcitrant person.

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edification
n.

Intellectual, moral, or spiritual improvement; enlightenment

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suffrage
n.

1. 1. The right or privilege of voting; franchise.
   2. The exercise of such a right.
2. A vote cast in deciding a disputed question or in electing a person to office.
3. A short intercessory prayer.

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cathartic
adj. n.

An agent for purging the bowels, especially a laxative.

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