Monday, March 17, 2008

The 7 Holy Virtues


While many of us can recite 5 or 6 of the 7 Deadly Sins (there are always those few that we just can't place our finger on - as a recap they are: Greed, Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, Envy, Pride and Wrath), very little is said of the 7 Holy Virtues that in essence counteract the sins...which I can actually recite without much hesitation, oddly enough:
Abstinence
Chastity
Humility
Patience
Kindness
Temperance
Diligence

Whether religious or not, I think these virtues can be applicable to anyone wanting to lead a more traditional lifestyle. The holy virtues, as you can see, say nothing of worship of a deity, say nothing of holding particular political beliefs nor embrace a certain people or group. So basically they are like the 10 Commandments but not as preachy.

Class Dismissed.

Afterthought:
While obviously far from being annointed a saint, I find myself inching closer and closer to encompassing these traits as best I can...well...with the exception of Patience. I have a real hard time with that one sometimes. I also dodged a bullet with the fact that cursing isn't a deadly sin, or I would be in BIG TROUBLE.

Monday, March 10, 2008

Sorry Pervs, This is Legit...

A new camera has been developed that can 'see' through peoples' clothes from up to 80 feet away...James Bond be damned!!

The camera, or T5000, designed by UK-based company Thru Vision, was created for use in spacecraft and other astronomical endeavors (so that clear images could be produced even when taken through cosmic dust and other sediment), has attracted positive attention from law enforcement agencies and others for its ability to also penetrate clothing...and detect weapons, explosives, and drugs by detecting and measuring tetrahertz waves.

Sorry perverts - this handy dandy new contraption does not show specific anatomical properties of subjects scanned. Guess you will have to wait until some genius figures that one out.

Link to the ThruVision Website

The T5000 will be shown this week at the UK government's Home Office Scientific Development Branch exhibition, and will be one of the 3,000+ other security products displayed.

Friday, March 7, 2008

The Real March Madness


Sure, sure...March symbolizes the NCAA Basketball Championships every year, commonly called 'March Madness', but as someone who only follows the NFL with much passion (although my alma mater tends to be a heavy hitter on the basketball court), March Madness is marked with increased consumption of the nectar of the Gods; namely Guinness.

Beware of the Ides of March!! Why? That is but 2 days away from perhaps the most fun celebration of beer (especially Guinness, Harp, etc) in the world: St. Patty's!! Yeah, I could go on and on about Saint Patrick and blah...blah...blah, but who cares?

Unfortunately, this blessed month also coincides with a vow I made to myself a while back to abstain from just about anything worthwhile - even giving up my precious VIP tickets (READ: bands galore and all the beer little old me could consume) to a Shamrockfest. This is serious business! We'll see when the willpower winds down.

Having said that, I highly encourage you, my devout fans, to drink, drink, drink to your heart's content. Drink for me! Drink like Ted Kennedy - just don't drive drunk and kill your mistress!!


Afterthought
:
News reports today indicated that young men, and most especially women, are starving themselves during the day so that they may be able to drink mass quantities of alcohol at night. The emerging term is 'DRUNKOREXIA'. I always thought that was called being an American college student. I could be wrong...


Afterthought of the Afterthought:
Have you heard of the Guinness Diet?? Though not endorsed by the Guinness folks, it consists of drinking 4-10 pints of Guinness a day - no food - combined with a vitamin C supplement, water and a pint of milk a day for a week. The originator of this diet, UK's own Mike Burt, lost 9 pounds in a week. Now I am not suggesting anything...but it could be interesting to compare outcomes. With my background in science, I find it might be incumbent upon me to conduct this experiment on myself someday...for the sake of furthering the scientific discipline, of course...