Leucippus was a Greek philosopher of the 5th century BCE. He is credited
with founding atomism, with his student Democritus. Leucippus divided
the world into two entities: atoms, indivisible particles that make up
all things, and the void, the nothingness between the atoms. Leucippus's
ideas were influential in ancient and Renaissance philosophy. They were
a precursor to modern atomic theory, but the two are only superficially
similar. Leucippus's atoms come in infinitely many forms, all in
constant motion, creating a deterministic world created by the
collisions of atoms. The soul is viewed as an arrangement of spherical
atoms, cycled through the body by respiration and creating thought and
sensory input. Little is known of his life, with a few scholars doubting
that he existed, attributing his ideas purely to Democritus. Two works
are attributed to Leucippus, The Great World System and On Mind, but all
of his writing has been lost except for one sentence.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucippus>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1889:
Bandits attacked a U.S. Army paymaster's escort in the Arizona
Territory, stealing more than $28,000.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wham_Paymaster_robbery>
1970:
Lubbock, Texas, was struck by a tornado that left 26 people
dead.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lubbock_tornado>
2010:
Gordon Brown resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
and Leader of the Labour Party after failing to strike a coalition
agreement with the Liberal Democrats.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_United_Kingdom_government_formation>
2022:
Myanmar civil war: Government troops killed 37 unarmed
civilians in Mondaingbin.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mon_Taing_Pin_massacre>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
syrinx:
1. (music) A set of panpipes.
2. (by extension)
3. (archaeology, Egyptology) Chiefly in the plural: a narrow channel cut
in rock, especially in Ancient Egyptian burial chambers.
4. (neurology, pathology) Any of several abnormal tube-shaped structures
in the body, especially a rare, fluid-filled neuroglial cavity in the
brain stem or within the spinal cord.
5. (ornithology, zootomy) The voice organ in birds, located at or near
where the trachea and the bronchi join.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/syrinx>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Get up, get up for shame! The blooming morn Upon her wings
presents the god unshorn. See how Aurora throws her fair Fresh-quilted
colours through the air: Get up, sweet slug-a-bed, and see The dew
bespangling herb and tree! Each flower has wept and bow’d toward the
east Above an hour since, yet you not drest; Nay! not so much as out
of bed? When all the birds have matins said And sung their thankful
hymns, ’tis sin, Nay, profanation, to keep in, Whereas a thousand
virgins on this day Spring sooner than the lark, to fetch in May.
--Robert Herrick
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Herrick>
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