(1460s –1524) Portuguese explorer, first European to reach India and establish a route for imperialism.
(also: 100 most influential people in the world)
(also: vasco da gama quotes)

(n.) an academic discipline that discusses and researches the motions of physical bodies, from tiny atoms up to massive stars and our entire galaxy.

physics was invented when archimedes was running home from the bathhouse to write down his thoughts on fluid displacement; he slipped and fell into a temporal anomaly, landing on the head of isaac newton, who thus also got some neat ideas about gravity in one of history's rare twofers.

... well, okay, it wasn't exactly that, but it was something like that.

singularity!

Well, we're all different
(also: life)

(n.) a place for a judge to decide who wins an argument and who has to pay what to whom. 2) in medieval times, a body of officials, retainers, servants, ministers, and assorted other lickspittles who attend on a king or lord

(v.) to attempt strategically to persuade another to have sex with you

The feeling that one has for the plate after he has eaten its contents, madam.

(also: The Devil's Dictionary)

The Answer to the Great Question Of Life, The Universe, And Everything. The problem is that nobody really knows what the question is

(also: Deep Thought)

individuals who identify as writing, verbally reciting, or expressing poetry in any form. Some poets are aware they are poets, and pass away long before society accepts them as such. Other poets are active (and known) in the poetry community during their time alive. Poets may use additional mediums to share and illustrate their poetry, such as music, or writing, even though some simply memorize and recite their poems. One of the most famous poems, historically, is almost certainly the inscription on the pillar of allahabad; more prominently known as the allahabad prahsasti, in academic circles. This inscription is in an ancient language known as Sanskrit, and praises the ruler of the time, Samudragupta. It also chronicles and lists the ruler's military and political achievements. bards are also often considered kin to poets, and one can be the other, in different cultural settings.

(also: bard)
(also: art)

“The higher we soar the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche,
(also: Nietzsche)

the momentary condition of the planet's atmosphere, particularly with regards to heat, cold, precipitation intensity,, earth, wind, fire, torrents of falling fish... that sort of stuff.

“One love, one heart, one destiny.”
― Robert Marley

a movie

"This film is dedicated to the gallant people of Afghanistan."
-the end-

(also: rambo)

(n.) a gentlemanly sport with increasingly infrequent casualties

a shepherd's staff held by a bishop in order to present himself as "one of the laymen"

A bawd hiding behind the back of her demeanor.

mushy, often colorful excrescence on the underside of tables

Earth 1.0

(n.) treatment of which has often been a manifestation of fear of the unknown, fear of "the other." having ginger hair is more common through certain populations, like Scots, Irishmen, Basque.

(link is working, though it appears broken)

A couple of G's, an R and an E, an I and an N
Just six little letters all jumbled together...

mostly russian
(also: russia)

In politics the party that prevents the Government from running amuck by hamstringing it.
The King of Ghargaroo, who had been abroad to study the science of government, appointed one hundred of his fattest subjects as members of a parliament to make laws for the collection of revenue. Forty of these he named the Party of Opposition and had his Prime Minister carefully instruct them in their duty of opposing every royal measure. Nevertheless, the first one that was submitted passed unanimously. Greatly displeased, the King vetoed it, informing the Opposition that if they did that again they would pay for their obstinacy with their heads. The entire forty promptly disemboweled themselves.

"What shall we do now?" the King asked. "Liberal institutions cannot be maintained without a party of Opposition."

"Splendor of the universe," replied the Prime Minister, "it is true these dogs of darkness have no longer their credentials, but all is not lost. Leave the matter to this worm of the dust."

So the Minister had the bodies of his Majesty's Opposition embalmed and stuffed with straw, put back into the seats of power and nailed there. Forty votes were recorded against every bill and the nation prospered. But one day a bill imposing a tax on warts was defeated — the members of the Government party had not been nailed to their seats! This so enraged the King that the Prime Minister was put to death, the parliament was dissolved with a battery of artillery, and government of the people, by the people, for the people perished from Ghargaroo.