modicum, masterclass, absurd, absurdity, ad absurdum, upgrade, downgrade

"We’re just trying to fight absurdity with absurdity.”


 The two notions, 'a blue moon' and 'the moon is made of green cheese', were synonyms for absurdity, like 'pigs might fly'.


Franklin D. Roosevelt was born on this day in 1882. In 2008, we wrote that presidential candidates should strive to inherit a modicum of the character and talent that FDR brought to his work

A concrete masterclass in the Shiga Prefecture, Japan:http://arc.ht/1Xsftbq

Horizontal House 水平の家

"This house does not look like a house. The shape of the house traces the boundary of the village."

ARCHITIZER.COM

Many years later, when the name Freud had entered the vocabulary of the educated and especially the semi-educated, people traced all kinds of real or imaginary psychological and physiological afflictions back to their wet nurses. As an adult, did you suffer from rheumatism, drug addiction,…hypochondria? Sure—it was all the wet nurse's fault: through her milk, you became predisposed to this disorder or that affliction, and so on, ad absurdum. 



The Greek crisis: a masterclass in how to pack as much absurdity and tragedy into 24 hours as possible. http://econ.st/1NxaWMj

Madness without method

WEDNESDAY July 1st began as a footnote in financial history textbooks: at midnight Greece became the first rich country to default on the IMF since the fund's...

ECON.ST

Fitch Ratings downgraded Nokia, saying it couldn't find any signs that the Finnish handset can stabilize its declining revenue and profit margins, and warned it might cut its rating further.

Downgrades by Ratings Agency Deal Blow to 15 Big Banks

By PETER EAVIS and SUSANNE CRAIG

Moody’s Investors Service, which had warned banks that a downgrade was possible, cut credit scores to new lows to reflect changes in the industry since the financial crisis. 

Oxford English Dictionary gets online upgrade

December 16, 2010 08:27 AM

Globe Staff

The Oxford English Dictionary has just upgraded its website with the help of iFactory, a Boston-based digital design and development firm, iFactory said.
The dictionary is published by Oxford University Press, and the new online edition is built on the iFactory publishing platform, PubFactory, which allows for "dynamic search capabilities" such as having search results displayed as a time-line that shows when a word came into usage, iFactory said.
A press release on the new edition included a statement from Robert Faber, editorial director of scholarly and general reference at Oxford University Press. Faber references the Oxford English Dictionary as OED.
"With the new OED website, we were able to unlock fresh insights into how the English language has been used across the centuries, by adding new ways to browse, search, and visualize the information." Faber said.




Taiwan to Stay as Emerging Market in MSCI Annual Market ...
Wall Street Journal
By Aries Poon. TAIPEI--Taiwan won't be upgraded to "developed market" status from "emerging market" in MSCI Inc.'s (MSCI) annual market classification ...

Upgraded Pearls of Low Price Flow From China

By KEITH BRADSHER 3 minutes ago

Chinese companies are using new techniques that help make pearls cheaper, throwing the industry into turmoil.

Some modicum of understanding of the preceding paragraphs would help.

Strength in Internet stocks, along with a handful of upgrades on some wireless phone companies, brought a modicum of relief to the tech sector Tuesday following the Nasdaq's recent pummeling.



Stinting on Mercy
PRESIDENT BUSH showed a modicum of courage and compassion last month when he commuted the sentence of Maryland resident Michael Dwayne Short. Mr. Short had no prior record when he was arrested in 1989 and charged as a relatively minor player in a D.C. crack cocaine ring. Because of the absurdity ...
(The Washington Post)

chester and suburbia real ale pubs (last updated 16/11/2007)

Chester might not, as yet, be in the same league as real ale meccas such as Norwich, Derby and York but it's certainly upwardly mobile for cask. Twenty years ago you had to be grateful for the odd place selling a decent drop of Burtonwood, Marstons and especially Greenalls but that's all changed thanks, in part, to the emergence of the likes of the Mill Hotel and Old Harkers Arms which bristle with hand pumps serving a myriad of micros. Elsewhere the city boasts tied houses belonging to Hydes, Sam Smith's, Lees and Okells. Throw in a few other pubs who have adopted an enlightened guest beer policy and basically, the visitor, with a modicum of research, shouldn't go wrong.

masterclass 

Pronunciation: /ˈmɑːstəklɑːs/ 

NOUN

A class, especially in music, given by an expert to highly talented students:Pavarotti appeared at a masterclass for young singersspecial masterclasses in microelectronics

modicum
n., pl. -cums or -ca (-kə).
A small, moderate, or token amount: “England still expects a modicum of eccentricity in its artists” (Ian Jack).

[Middle English, from Latin, from neuter of modicus, moderate, from modus, measure.]

modicum
noun [S] FORMAL
a small amount of something good such as truth or honesty:
There's not even a modicum of truth in her statement.
Anyone with a modicum of common sense could have seen that the plan wouldn't work.





ab·surd (əb-sûrd', -zûrd')
adj.

1. Ridiculously incongruous or unreasonable. See synonyms at foolish.
2. Of, relating to, or manifesting the view that there is no order or value in human life or in the universe.
3. Of or relating to absurdism or the absurd.

n.
The condition or state in which humans exist in a meaningless, irrational universe wherein people's lives have no purpose or meaning. Used chiefly with the.

[Latin absurdus, out of tune, absurd : ab-, intensive pref.; see ab-¹ + surdus, deaf, muffled.]

absurdity ab·surd'i·ty (-sûr'dĭ-tē, -zûr'-) or ab·surd'ness n.
absurdly ab·surd'ly adv.


ad absurdum

[ad ab-sur-duh m]
Spell Syllables
Word Origin

adverb

1.

to the point of absurdity.

  upgrade

 (ŭp'grād')

v., -grad·ed, -grad·ing, -grades.
v.tr.

1. To raise to a higher grade or standard: upgrading their military defenses.
2. To improve the quality of (livestock) by selective breeding for desired characteristics.
3. Computer Science.
   1. To replace (a software program) with a more recently released, enhanced version.
   2. To replace (a hardware device) with one that provides better performance.

v.intr.

1. To exchange a possession for one of greater value or quality; trade up.
2. Computer Science. To replace software or hardware with an upgrade.

n.

1. The act or an instance of upgrading.
2. Computer Science.
   1. A software program that provides added enhancements over an earlier version.
   2. A hardware device that provides greater performance than an earlier model.
3. An upward incline.

adv. & adj.
Uphill.

idiom:on the upgrade

1. Improving or progressing.

upgradable up'grad'a·ble adj.