Alexander’s Great Love

Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.”

—Jean Cocteau

Attributed to Alexander the Great, the Gordian knot is a moniker commonly used to describe a complicated, unsolvable problem. As legend goes, Alexander and his army marched into the Phrygian capital of Gordium, in what is now modern day Turkey. As they entered the city, Alexander saw the cart that belonged to King Midas’s father, Gordius. The remarkable feature on this cart was the yoke, which the Roman historian, Quintus Curtius Rufus described as, “several knots all so tightly entangled that it was impossible to see how they were fastened.”

An oracle proclaimed that whomever unraveled its hopelessly complicated knots was destined to become the ruler of all Asia. This posed an irresistible challenge to Alexander. “For some time Alexander wrestled unsuccessfully with the knots,” Rufus remarks. “Then he said: ‘It makes no difference how they’re untied,’ and cut through all the thongs with his sword, thus evading the oracle’s prophecy—or, indeed, fulfilling it.”

That very night, lightning and thunder shook Gordium, which the seers interpreted to mean the gods were pleased with the man who had cut the Gordian knot. True to the prophecy, Alexander went on to conquer Egypt and much of Asia, before his death from fever at the age of 32.

The tales of Alexander the Great endure and the symbolism of the Gordian knot has become a proverbial term for an intractable problem. Likewise, “cutting the Gordian knot” denotes taking bold action to solve a seemingly impossible problem.

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Boston

Sicut Patribus Sit Deus Nobis

Encircling the seal at the top is the motto “Sicut Patribus Sit Deus Nobis” which means “God be with us as He was with our fathers” and is found at 1 Kings, VIII, 57. At the bottom is “Civitatis Regimine Donata A.D. 1822” which means “City-Status Granted by the Authority of the State in 1822.”

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Terran Pride

All of you are my cubs, part of my PRIDE here on Earth, black, red, white, yellow and brown. — Joe Rayner

Long ago our ancestors were cast out from their home-world, deemed unfit for civilized society. They packed our forebears into spaceships and gave them the dubious honor of colonizing a barren swath of the galaxy. They probably thought we’d be wiped out by the dangers of the universe, but they underestimated us. We’re survivors. We’re winners. We’re Terran. And we intend to bend the universe to our will.”

  • An anonymous terran.
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Radiation Cleanup

Humble fungi found in most back gardens could help clean up battlefields contaminated with depleted uranium.

At present, sites can be partial decontaminated by physically collecting and disposing of fragments from shells. However, radioactive particles and dust from explosions remain in the soil, preventing full reclamation.

Now, a research team in Scotland has established that common fungi can grow on and chemically lock away the offending uranium. As their hyphal filaments sprawled across fragments of depleted uranium, the tubules gradually became coated in a yellowy mineral.

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