Treasures found on StumbleUpon today

The 11th graders all left school today to go to some show, taking with them all of our favorite teachers. Therefore, Rolan and I found ourselves at school at 9am with absolutely nothing to do for the rest of the day. So, we decided to come home, watch the Australian Open, make popcorn and pass hours on StumbleUpon. Here are some of the highlights:

"Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" is a grammatically valid sentence. Here's the breakdown, thanks to our friends at Wikipedia:

The sentence is unpunctuated and uses three different readings of the word "buffalo". In order of their first use, these are:

a. the city of Buffalo, New York, which is used as a noun adjunct in the sentence and is followed by the animal;

n. the noun buffalo, an animal, in the plural (equivalent to "buffaloes" or "buffalos"), in order to avoid articles;

v. the verb "buffalo" meaning to bully, confuse, deceive, or intimidate.

Thus, the sentence when parsed reads as a claim that bison who are intimidated by bison are intimidating to bison (at least in the city of Buffalo, impliedly Buffalo, NY):

Bison from Buffalo, New York, who are intimidated by other bison in their community also happen to intimidate other bison in their community.

THE buffalo FROM Buffalo WHO ARE buffaloed BY buffalo FROM Buffalo, buffalo (verb) OTHER buffalo FROM Buffalo.

This letter from the folks at Cash for Gold:

Words of wisdom from Decadent Lifestyle

This pretty cool Mark Twain quote from Harper's Magazine, 1899. What a guy!

...If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky way. properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and had done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it.
The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?
- Mark Twain
(“Concerning The Jews,” Harper’s Magazine, 1899)