Lead Balloon of the week: U-S military tells Iraqis to turn in all guns or face arrest

The US military is now telling Iraqis they cannot own or sell guns. Any Iraqi who does faces arrest, according to a new radio spot running in the country.

(Link from the Future of Freedom Foundation)

Learn something every day. Philip Anderson writes in rec.heraldry:

Maria is the Latinisation of Miriam, which means something like “drop of the ocean”. But the Latin translation of this, stilla maris, was confused with stella maris, i.e. “star of the sea”, which is said to be why she is often shown with a blue robe decorated with a star.

2004 Oct 24: Now it occurs to me that the same root is in distill and in carmine Burānō: Fortune plango vulnera / stillantibus ocellis (I bewail the wounds of fortune / with dripping eyes).

When Democracy Failed: The Warnings of History (link from David Mankins)

“You are now witnessing the beginning of a great epoch in history,” he [the head of government] proclaimed, standing in front of the burned-out building, surrounded by national media. “This fire,” he said, his voice trembling with emotion, “is the beginning.” He used the occasion – “a sign from God,” he called it – to declare an all-out war on terrorism and its ideological sponsors, a people, he said, who traced their origins to the Middle East and found motivation for their evil deeds in their religion.

from CNN: Hospital seeks Klingon speaker

“There are some cases where we’ve had mental health patients where this was all they would speak,” said the county’s purchasing administrator, Franna Hathaway.

County officials said that obligates them to respond with a Klingon-English interpreter, putting the language of starship Enterprise officer Worf and other Klingon characters on a par with common languages such as Russian and Vietnamese, and less common tongues including Dari and Tongan.

Update: Or not.

Google gives 2910 results for “wretched hive of scum and villainy”.

2004 Oct 24: now “about 6,070”; a disturbing trend.

2006 May 10: now “about 76,100”

I’ve received the first half of the Vance Integral Edition, and it looks swell. The printing is crisp, the binding solid. I had doubts about the new typeface (designed by the instigator of the project, in what seemed an awful hurry), but it looks quite readable though intentionally archaic. My worst disappointment is that the frontispiece drawings – in a delicate style – are spoiled by a grey background. (I’ll have to ask about that.)

Because of software incompatibilities and whatnot, I was not able to contribute much to the project, and — in a fit of depression — asked that my name be removed. Of course I’m still disappointed not to see my name where it ought to be! (I was under the impression that all the volunteers would be listed in each volume. I worked on three short stories: “Green Magic”, in volume 17; “I’ll Build Your Dream Castle” and “Cat Island”, not yet printed.)

This is probably old, but it’s new to me, and a hoot: The Definitive Middle-earth Test