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  • Turtles all the way down

    The most widely known version appears in Stephen Hawking's 1988 book A Brief History of Time, which starts:

    A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever", said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"[1]

    The origins of the turtle story are uncertain.

    via en.wikipedia.org

    Darren brought this up today - I've used this phrase a lot in the past, although I don't recall where I got it from. I did read and enjoy the Discworld series.

    Yak shaving is another personal favourite.

    → 6:29 PM, Oct 26   •  Personal, turtles all the way down, yak shaving, Blog
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