January 2010
53 posts
2 tags
I can't hold it in anymore
Here are fifteen things that I didn’t like about That Movie.
(Avatar spoilers, although given that 3 hours is unreasonably long to sit in 3D glasses, I honestly think I’m doing you a favour):
Without referencing her appearance, her position in the tribe, or what she does in the movie, describe Netyiri’s character. Tough, isn’t it? Now do the same thing for her brother...
2 tags
“I used to manage a band which recorded for EMI on Parlophone, which was the same...”
– Paul Keating, Australia’s most metal ex-Prime Minister.
I love this textbook.
spinlighted:
monkeytypist:
spinlighted:
It points out the contradictory teachings of the Catholic Church and the history of their views on abortion. How many of you knew that Pope Gregory XIV was such a liberal? Did you know about fetuses being “ensouled” at 18 weeks? Because before that point in time…fetuses weren’t real and abortions performed up until that date were considered completely...
1 tag
I love this textbook.
spinlighted:
It points out the contradictory teachings of the Catholic Church and the history of their views on abortion. How many of you knew that Pope Gregory XIV was such a liberal? Did you know about fetuses being “ensouled” at 18 weeks? Because before that point in time…fetuses weren’t real and abortions performed up until that date were considered completely fine.
Nah, common myth. The...
“Someone sends me the links every time there’s a new one. I think I’ve seen about...”
– Oliver Hirschbiegel, director of Downfall, on the use of his film for the infamous Hilter meme. (via Vulture)
-
Know Your Meme: Downfall / Hitler Meme
(via ericmortensen)
Heh. I’ve never seen the actual film, nor do I think I could now, after seeing all the YouTube versions.
(via jhnbrssndn)
...
Howard Zinn, historian who challenged status quo,... →
jhnbrssndn:
Howard Zinn, the Boston University historian and political activist who was an early opponent of US involvement in Vietnam and a leading faculty critic of BU president John Silber, died of a heart attack today in Santa Monica, Calif, where he was traveling, his family said. He was 87.
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ohryankelley:
Huey Lewis and the News - Hip to...
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Fun With Etymology, #2:
Have you ever wondered where the English word money comes from? Of course you have! Wonder no more. It’s from Old French and ultimately comes from Latin moneta, which means “stern, admonishing”, and was one of the titles of Juno (“the stern”). So it turns out that the temple of Juno Moneta was one of the places where coins were made. It’s also where we get...
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re adverbial 'the'
tristn:
monkeytypist:
Does this derive from the times when þon was an instrumental in Old English? I wonder.
Etymonline for the says:
late O.E. þe, nominative masculine form of the demonstrative pronoun and adjective. After c.950, it replaced earlier se (masc.), seo (fem.), þæt (neut.) [….] Adv. use in the more the merrier, the sooner the better, etc. is a relic of O.E. þy, originally the...
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“The fact remains however that email is the ‘killer app’ for online...”
– Alex White
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Enough with the Australia Day backlash
It seems these days online you can’t throw a tetris brick without hitting someone blogging about how Australia Day recently has been taken over by disquieting expressions of xenophobia.
Okay, okay, I get it. Important point. And unfortunately not many of these people seem to make the obvious point that a lot of it is John Howard’s fault.
But.
There’s a problem.
Australians...
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“Sexual Assault Prevention Tips Guaranteed to Work
1. Don’t put drugs in...”
– I got yer rape prevention email forward right here - rape prevention tips for men. Read the whole post.
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Knowledge Bomb
tristn:
Trivia question for the grammar nerds: When is “the” not an article?
When it is an adverb, as in the following:
The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
…and no one will be (none) the wiser.
Raynor really is a weirdo, the more I think about it.
The usage requires a comparative, that is an adjective/adverb modified by more or the affix -er.
[NB: This has been in my drafts folder...
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Ambition
At the risk of being insufferably awful on the internet, I have been pondering what my life goals should be. At most points throughout my life I have had real difficulty answering this question; I’m normally too engrossed in and enjoying what I’m doing to give thought about whether it should define me long term or not.
Example: I started studying linguistics while I was still in high...
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“A Spanish lawmaker was horrified to find out the FBI used his photograph as part...”
– The Age.
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“In addition to providing immediate humanitarian assistance, the U.S. response to...”
– The Heritage Foundation (via jhnbrssndn)
Because one 19-year occupation, and nigh a century’s worth of assassinations, interventions, restrictions and general acts of bullying clearly were not enough.
Talk about your pact with the Devil. I’m sure the US will have *much* better luck...
“During the show, Obama’s Republican presidential rival Senator John McCain...”
– Obama musical to premiere in Frankfurt - The Local (click through, the picture is priceless)
3 tags
Something else. . .
Papa Legba is possibly the only god (strictly speaking, loa) I’ve come across whose principal attribute is his language skills.
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Haitian Creole
All this earthquake news has distressed me, so I’m spending some time learning about Haitian Creole instead.
Although French is listed as an official language, very few Haitians speak French. Instead they use Haitian Creole, which is a fully developed language - like Afrikaans - developed from the colonial vernacular and with many inputs from other languages like English.
It is basically...
2 tags
“It beggars belief that, in the year 2010, ASIO can still behave like this.
...”
– Exactly my thoughts. Anyone want to take a bet with me that at some point the ASIO murmurings on “security risks” being among the refugees end up being unsubstantiated?
(The excellent Jeff Sparrow appearing in Crikey).
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“Baboons are very sensitive to who stands where in their society’s hierarchy. If...”
– In Monkey Babble, Seeking Key to Human Language Development - NYT. This article astonished me. I plan on using this exact baboon technique to sow hierarchical confusion at my office. Also:
“The Campbell’s monkeys give a “krak” alarm call when they see a leopard. But adding an “-oo” changes it to a...
“‘Mental illness is feared and has such a stigma because it represents a...”
– The Americanization of Mental Illness.
“It turns out that those who adopted biomedical/genetic beliefs about mental...”
– Unburying The Lead: The Americanization of Mental Illness
"human stories" are the only ones we have.
Think about that before you start “telling” one.
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“Perhaps I’m just an electronic version of one of those crazy women you see on...”
– Leo Shanahan, The Punch.
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unburyingthelead:
Not to find one’s way about in a city is of little interest…But to lose one’s way in a city, as one loses one’s way in a forest, requires practice…I learned this art late in life: it fulfilled the dreams whose first traces were the labyrinths on the blotters of my exercise books.
- Walter Benjamin, from A Berlin Childhood Around the Turn of the Century
unburyingthelead:
“I think for many people, we think about our goals, and if nothing much has happened with those then suddenly it seems like it was just yesterday that we set them,” said Gal Zauberman, an associate professor of marketing at the Wharton School of Business.
Yet the sensation of passing time can be very different, Dr. Zauberman said, “depending on what you think about, and...
Chess boxing. It exists. →
Foreign Accent Syndrome →
fluffynotes:
Foreign accent syndrome is a rare medical condition involving speech production that usually occurs as a side effect of severe brain injury, such as a stroke or a head injury. Between 1941 and 2009, there have been sixty recorded cases.
via bestofwikipedia
Imaginary Standards
pterodactyls:
When I hear a particularly bad idea, I instantly imagine the boardroom full of suits that settled on it, talking as if it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. “Wait’ll you hear this one, guys…colored ketchup.”
Every explorer I mentally picture looks just like Alexander von Humboldt, even if they actually look like Ernest Shackleton. Ernest Shackleton is not exempt from this...
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You can tell Lady Gaga isn't a native French...
Just sayin’.
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December 2009
59 posts
You talk like Marlene Dietrich And you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire Your clothes are all made by Balmain And there’s diamonds and pearls in your hair You live in a fancy appartement Of the Boulevard of St. Michel Where you keep your Rolling Stones records And a friend of Sacha Distel But where do you go to my lovely When you’re alone in your bed Tell me the thoughts that...