Posts Tagged with "history"

Socrates: Education vs. Common Sense

July 8th, 2017 at 5:08 pm by Mike
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In ancient Greece, (469 – 399 BC), Socrates was reputed to hold knowledge in high esteem.

One day an acquaintance met the great philosopher and said, “Do you know what I just heard about your friend, Diogenes?”

“Hold on a minute,” Socrates replied. “Before telling me anything, I’d like you to pass a little test. It’s called the Triple Filter Test. Before you talk to me about my friend, it might be a good idea to take a moment and filter what you’re going to say. That’s why I call it the triple filter test. The first filter is TRUTH. Have you made absolutely sure that what you are about to tell me is true?”

“No,” the man said, “actually I just heard about it and…”

“All right,” said Socrates. “So you don’t really know if it’s true or not. Now let’s try the second filter, the filter of GOODNESS. Is what you are about to tell me about my friend something good?”

“No, on the contrary…”

“So,” Socrates continued, “you want to tell me something bad about him, but you’re not certain it’s true. You may still pass the test though, because there’s one filter left: the filter of USEFULNESS. Is what you want to tell me about my friend going to be useful to me?”

“No, not really.”

“Well,” concluded Socrates, “if what you want to tell me is neither true nor good nor even useful, why tell it to me at all?”

This is why Socrates was a great philosopher and held in such high regard. It also explains why Socrates never found out that Diogenes was banging his wife.

AMC Black History Month

February 10th, 2015 at 5:20 pm by Doug
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Thanks, AMC, for Sunday night’s gut-wrenching episode of The Walking Dead!

AMC Was like: Happy Black History Month

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Puerto Rico Stole its Flag From a Comic Book

April 9th, 2014 at 5:25 pm by Mark
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Just to debunk the popular Facebook meme…

"The Moment You Realize He's Really Captain Puerto Rico."  Captain America: Designed in 1941.  Puerto Rico Flag: Designed in 1952.  That moment you realize... Puerto Rico stole their flag from a Comic Book.

Most Hated Man in Irish History?

March 17th, 2014 at 5:27 pm by Mark
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Oliver Cromwell is undoubtedly one of the most infamous characters in the history of the British Isles. None will deny that the man was only just short of if the very definition of genocidal, having killed nearly 300,000 people in Scotland and Ireland, with nearly double that amount dying after the wars and massacres due to illness and starvation. And despite those figures, depending who you ask, the man could be a revered hero, a feared dictator or even a reviled traitor.

That makes this image a perfect illustration of the remarkably fine line between funny and clever. Context is key, right?

Oliver Cromwell: My potatoes bring all the micks to the yard and they're like, that famine was hard. Damn right, that famine was hard. I could feed you, but you'll have to starve...

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Cellphone Ancestry

February 26th, 2013 at 5:16 pm by Mark
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The adolescent phone snickered for hours when the elder cellphone told him about his great-great-grandfather’s massive crank…

Cellphone: "That's right, dead, our ancestors had tails."