'Roots, Wings and Spurs' plays out in a mystical place where great minds from ages past are gathered in a forum to debate various topics of interest and instruction with the reader observing proceedings from the vantage point of a fly on the wall. It is designed to fill the gaps left in the wake of formal education. It is aimed at bringing enlightenment, where previously there was mainly clinical instruction, to school leavers and young adults on the threshold of life. It places strong emphasis on personal growth and development and the importance of building character, social and interpersonal skills, career considerations and the cultivation of streetwise savvy - those aspects that normally fall through the cracks where book instruction prevails over life instruction. It provides insight into how the world works and operates for those finding themselves at a time of life when it is most needed. That being said, it can also serve as educational entertainment and 'alternative escape' for just about any age group, not forgetting your recovering and forever questing social media addict.
The author alludes to Nature's apparent vested interest in the one paramount, sweeping characteristic lodging in all organisms - the ability to grow and develop - and suggests a deeper, far-reaching and logical conclusion to Nature's design for all 'unfolded' mortals who have taken the trouble of connecting the dots.
Among the contemporaries of Descartes none displayed greater natural genius than Pascal, but his mathematical reputation rests more on what he might have done than on what he actually effected, as during a considerable part of his life he deemed it his duty to devote his whole time to religious exercises.
At 16, Pascal began designing a calculating machine, which he finally perfected when he was thirty, the pascaline, a beautiful handcrafted box about fourteen by five by three inches. The first accurate mechanical calculator was born.
Pascal was dismayed and disgusted by society's reactions to his machine and completely renounced his interest in science an mathematics, devoting the rest of his life to God. He is best known for his collection of spiritual essays, Les Pensees.
Ironically, Pascal, who was a genius by any measure, with one of the finest brains of all time, died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 39.
Among the contemporaries of Descartes none displayed greater natural genius than Pascal, but his mathematical reputation rests more on what he might have done than on what he actually effected, as during a considerable part of his life he deemed it his duty to devote his whole time to religious exercises.
He was a child prodigy who was educated by his father, a Tax Collector in Rouen. Pascal's earliest work was in the natural and applied sciences where he made important contributions to the study of fluids, and clarified the concepts of pressure and vacuum by generalizing the work of Evangelista Torricelli.
In 1646, he and his sister Jacqueline identified with the religious movement within Catholicism known by its detractors as Jansenism. Following a mystical experience in late 1654, he had his "second conversion", abandoned his scientific work, and devoted himself to philosophy and theology. His two most famous works date from this period: the Lettres provinciales and the Pensees.
In honor of his scientific contributions, the name Pascal has been given to the SI unit of pressure, to a programming language, and Pascal's law (an important principle of hydrostatics), and as mentioned above, Pascal's triangle and Pascal's wager still bear his name.
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