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From the page: "Davis posits that, prior to the Taoist tradition, the Chinese already had very definitive notions of the natural world, especially involving the Five Elements, which were Water, Fire, Earth, Metal and Wood. These were commonly thought to be interchangeable with one another; each were capable of becoming another element. The concept is integral, as the belief in outer alchemy necessitates the belief in natural elements being able to change into others. The cyclical balance of the elements relates to the binary opposition of yin-yang, and so it appears quite frequently."

From the page: "The risk of death at the hands of a surgeon was greatly increased by the lack of understanding of the causes of infection. Although cleanliness was a moral virtue, descriptions suggest that a surgeon was as likely to wash his hands after an operation as before. The old frock coats worn by surgeons during operations were, according to a contemporary, 'stiff and stinking with pus and blood'. Beneath the table was a sawdust box for collecting blood. The death rate was further heightened by the shock of the operation, and because operations took place as a last resort, patients tended to have few reserves of strength."

From the page: "Juris Zarins, an archaeologist who worked in Saudi Arabia for 15 years and led parts of the national survey, suggests religious sensitivities play a role in the government's limitations on archaeology . "They don't want people fooling around with prehistory because it contradicts the Koran -- any more than fundamentalist Christians want anyone to say anything is older than six thousand years," Zarins told LiveScience. "

From the page: "Decentralization and centralization have been consistent themes throughout history pertaining to governmental authority and political theory. From the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, there have been periods of centralization and decentralization in societies worldwide. Almost any political movement, from the rise of city states in Roman times, to the later rise and downfall of feudal empires during the middle ages, to the rise of fascism in Germany prior to World War II, to the late 20th century formation of the European Economic Union, the history of Europe has been one of cycles of centralization and decentralization.

MIT Professor Thomas W. Malone explains that "decentralization has three general benefits:

(1) encourages motivation and creativity;

(2) allows many minds to work simultaneously on the same problem; and

(3) accommodates flexibility and individualization."

Decentralized decision making, Malone says, tends to create less ridigity and flatter hierarchies in organizations. When upper management delegates decision making responsibilities, there also exist wider spans of control among managers, creating a more lateral flow of information. Thus there will be more bottom up directional information flow, allowing for more innovation and efficiency closer to the means of production."

From the page: "As for the future, Jimmy McMillan says he won't be running again and the the Rent Is Too Damn High Party is now in the hands of the children."

From the page: "In the late 1990s, Nostradogbert briefly became a doomsday prophet so he could "scare gullible people." His logic for saying the world would end in the year 2000 was that "It's biiiiiiiig and rouuuuunnnd." His nemesis is John Stossel.
...
Dogbert succeeds in taking over the world on at least one known occasion. He later retires to go sit on a soft pillow, claiming that "No matter what I do, it always feels better when I stop doing it."

From the page: "I only like characters who have huge, gaping character flaws. The world is far too sensitive to let me get away with a highly flawed minority member."