incorrect chemistry

Posted on Tuesday, 2003 May 20 by Anton

Jacob Sullum: “H: The surprising truth about heroin and addiction“

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outside the box

Posted on Sunday, 2003 May 18 by Anton

For ice cream lovers.

If you were a funny animal cartoon, what species – let’s make it easier: what genus – would you be?

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exporting what, again?

Posted on Friday, 2003 May 16 by Anton

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)

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an ancient visual pun

Posted on Tuesday, 2003 May 13 by Anton

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).

Posted in arts, language, religion | Leave a comment

it couldn’t happen there, either

Posted on Tuesday, 2003 May 13 by Anton

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.

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jIyajbe’

Posted on Monday, 2003 May 12 by Anton

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.

Posted in cinema, fandom, language | Leave a comment

catch-phrase of the day

Posted on Saturday, 2003 May 10 by Anton

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”

Posted in cinema, fandom, neep-neep | Leave a comment