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2004-11-19 tea (utc+1)

Sm�rg�spostus

�1. A light dawns!

Lat. "Hierosolymis" = Eng. "Jerusalem", as we kn�, ergo: Lat. "Hi[wovel]" = Eng. "J[wovel]" and so this chap "Hieronymous", the celebrated translator of the bible, is not a rival to Saint Jerome, but the self-same Jezza masquerading as a Roman.

�2. Thanks, Mr Richie!

Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles: an easy read�r in the Latin tongue.

Haec n�rrantur � po�t�s d� Perse�. Perseus f�lius erat Iovis, m�xim� de�rum; avus �ius Acrisius appell�b�tur.

I can't quite read it, but it's close. So very close! (Of all the things I did at school, Latin was that from which I gained the least and forgot soonest, and that's saying something.)

�3.

Tore Janson's A Natural History of Latin, which has prompted this Latinisme has now been Englished. I'm just starting out on Part II: the post-Roman years, which are given as much weight as the classical era and quite right too: Latin owes it's priveleged position in the eyes of nutters like Mr Ritchie to its role as the lingua franca of the Roman church, and as any fule kno the rise of the church paralleled the decline of empire.

Western Christendom ho!

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2004-11-19 11:45

Tangent Bundles Ahoy!

It is quite a good book although there are no prinsesses in it. And not very many pictures, really, considering that it's about geometry. (For some values of "about". And "geometry".)

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2004-11-19 09:19

Be still my beating segue

Like a drum my heart was beating
And your kiss was sweet as wine
But the joys of love are fleeting
For Pierrot and Columbine

[The Carnival is Over, The Seekers]

�ver? What do you mean �ver?

Sn�kaoset �ver - nu kommer kylan

The sn�kaos is �ver - now comes the freeze

Weather, isn't it?

Meanwhile, Tanja Tomic of V�rnamo has just been crowned Yoorpean pizza champion, according to Aftonbladet and not a single other Yoorpean news source I can find.

Vad sa domarna om din vinnarpizza?
- En av dem friade till mig. Men jag sa att jag inte kan gifta mig med n�gon som bakar s�mre pizzor �n jag.

What did the judges say about your winning pizza?
One of them proposed to me. But I said I could never marry someone who makes worse pizza than I.

Wimmins, isn't it?

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2004-11-18 14:46

Sm�rg�spost

Persons from Troms�, in the very Arctic north of Norway, join in the sn�kaos fun by pointing out or remarking that sn� ("sn�") doesn't cause much in the way of kaos up there, and they can't see why it should do so down in the Oosh.

Martin Schanche kan ikke forst� hvordan et par centimeter sn� kan paralysere hovedstaden i vinterlandet Norge.

Martin Schanche can't understand how a couple of centimetres of sn� can paralyse the capital city of a winter land like Norway.

�2. Sn�kaos II

Meanwhile:

I vinter kan sn�kaoset i Stockholm bli v�rre �n n�gonsin.

This winter the sn�kaos in Stockholm could be worse than EVAR!

�3. Prinsessbonusstory!

They're kronprinsess krazy upside-down there in Straya!

Den danske kronprinsesse v�kker stor opsigt ved at optr�de p� forsiden af modemagasinet Vogue. Bladet er forl�ngst udsolgt p� Tasmanien.

The Danish kronprinsess has attracted a lot of attention by posing for the front page of the fashion magazine Vogue. The 'bladet sold out a long time ago in Tasmania.

Also:

Alle eksperter er enige om, at hun er sprunget ud som supermodel.

All experts are unanimous that she is sprung out as a supermodel, boing boing.

We ourselves are especially unanimous!

�4. Special guest langwidge!

Today our special guest langwidge is Dutchy-Double-Dutch:

Ierland is het beste land om te wonen. Dat blijkt uit een onderzoek dat het Britse blad The Economist heeft gehouden.

Ireland is the best land to live in. That blijk out a survey taht the British 'bladet The Economist has gehouden.

It's easier than Tsky-Tsk and certainly easier than Wiking, is this Dutchy-Double-Dutch. And they have prinsesses...

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2004-11-18 11:27

I'm a cosmopolitan, get me out of here!

The Economiste, a Republican magazine, has announced the results of its quality of life comparison, with Ireland top:

Ireland was followed by Switzerland, Norway and Luxembourg. All but one of the top 10 were European countries.

The USA languished in 13th, while Britain was 29th - the lowest of the pre-expansion EU nations.

Norway, Sweden, �sland and Denmark all make the top 10 (where's Finland?) along with the Switzyland, Straya, Spain, Luxembourgh and Italy.

Notwithstanding methodological scruples and the Economiste's recent colonocephalique tendencies, this does not exactly dampen my ardour to be in a country or land other than this one.

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2004-11-18 mornin' (utc)

Sn�! Kaos!

Norway:

Sn�en kom - kaos som vanlig

The sn� came - kaos, as usual

Sweden:

Trafikkaos efter sn�ov�der

Traffic kaos after sn� storm

Splendid, splendid stuff.

Bonus prinsess link:

CROWN Princess Mary of Denmark and [some bloke] will make their first official visit to Australia next March to celebrate the 200th birthday of Danish storyteller Hans Christian Andersen.

Straya, Knudella? Watch out for the diddly snikes and spidahs!

[Thanks to the Annas K and Louise for linkages!]

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2004-11-17 tea (utc)

Sm�rg�spost

�1. On identity

Q: What's the difference between a duck?
A: One of its legs is both the same.

[Trad.]

�2. Slacking, slightly slack

Remember that Corinne Maier book on slacking at work that caused a fuss ages and ages and ages ago? VG has just got to the story. Way to slack, VG!

Boken kommer p� engelsk i b�de Storbritannia og USA til v�ren. Tyskland, Spania, Brasil, Japan og S�r-Korea er andre markeder som venter.

- Vi har skrevet kontrakt i Sverige og Finland. I Danmark er vi i avslutningsfasen, men Norge har jeg ikke h�rt noe fra - enn�, sier Thomas McKeon, som har ansvaret for rettigheter hos Michalon- forlaget.

The books is coming out in both the UK and the USA in the Spring. Germany, Spain, Brasil, Japan and South Korea versions are in the pipeline.

"We have signed contracts for Sweden and Finland. In Danmark we're in the final stages, but in Norway we haven't heard from anyone - yet", says Thomas McKeon, whose responsible for foreign rights at Michalon.

Way to slack, Norwegish publishing "industry"! Don't worry, Mr McKeon, they'll get round to it any year now...

�3. And there was much rejoicing!

- Will there be sn� this winter, [Swedish] Met Office, as there was last year, and the year before, and the year before that?
- There will, my child, there surely will.
- Will there be kaos? In particular, will there be kaos on the roads in the town and also the roads in the country, as there was last year and the year before and the year before that?
- It is certainly to be expected.
- What is the nature of the cause of this kaos which the sn� will cause this year as it did last year and the year before that on the roads in town and also the roads in the country?
- Why, my child, it is sn�, of course, but it is also the element of surprise.

SMHI varnar: Sn�kaos p� v�g

Met Office warning: Sn�kaos is on the way

Oh, hurra!

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2004-11-17 sigh (utc)

What I did on my tea-break

I went to court!

The Council Tax persons are very useless, and fond of expressing their uselessness with Summonses. And I can assure you that if you summon a von Bladet, a von Bladet is what you're going to get.

So I toddled down to the Magistrates Lair Court and announced myself to the Gatekeeper of Justice, but when The List was consulted, no von Bladet was to be found on it. (Perhaps because I have tried every means known to mankind of contacting the Council Tax persons to sort things out, but perhaps not.)

Persons not on The List, as it turns out, should go up to Court 5 on the fifth floor and tell an usher (they're the ones in the robes, you can't miss them) that they're not on The List, and await further instructions.

The further instructions I got were to go and queue up to talk to the persons from the council (they're the ones in the suits, you can't miss them). And the person from the Council says, you should go round to the Council's own offices, and he or she is very sorry that they don't have the resources to answer phones, emails or letters, but they do answer the door.

So I went to the Council's own offices, and they did, and we're all friends again now. I can't help thinking it would have been easier to just answer the sodding phone in the first place and skip the bit with the ushers ect, but I am after all not privvy to the boundless wisdom of beaurocracies hem hem.

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2004-11-17 09:19

Genderteori

Isn't genderteori just a nominalist position within the teori of natural kinds?

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2004-11-16 15:41

Sm�rg�spost

Mais oui, Jacques, it is tr�s � la mode:

C'est ce qui ressort d'une �tude de la soci�t� Millward Brown pour la European Interactive Advertising Association. La France (avec 49 % d'internautes qui se connectent tous les jours) est le troisi�me pays europ�en en terme d'utilisation quotidienne d'Internet, derri�re la Belgique et le Danemark.

That's what's come out of a study by the company Millward Brown for the Association Europ�enne pour la Publicit� Interactive. France (with 49% of internauts connecting daily) is third in Europe in terms of daily Interweb usage, behind Belgium and Danmark.

Belgium, man, Belgium.

But if you want an online listnings guide to gai Paris you have a want destined to remain unsatisfied: they were pulled so as not to endanger their treeware stablemates, which are not sold here in Blighty. Want to be a great world city, Paris? Sor' i' ah'!

�2. Shoppning!

Over at Information, the Danish Aftonbladet, they're playing catch-up:

HEIDEGGER, hvis Et brev om humanismen, udkom i sidste uge, [...]

[MARTIN "HEIGH-HO!"] HEIDEGGER, whose Lettre on Humanisme came out last week [...]

For large values of week, surely? Anyway, it's out of print in the Frenchy-French and Saxo.dk has it not; will you sell me one ibooks.dk?

Vi leverer indtil videre kun til Danmark.

No. Go 'way, silly Engleesh. We don't care for your sort 'round here.

�3. Ecumenicalisme, capitaliste style

A nice Muslim dolly:

This Eid al-Fitr there is a new must-have toy on the Muslim child's wish list - the Razanne doll. With her pre-teen figure and aura of humility she doesn't, at first glance, stand out in the gaudy world of children's toys. But she has captured the hearts of Muslim girls across the US, Canada, Singapore and Germany. And now the doll, whose name translates as "shyness and modesty", is available in the UK

(You can tell, isn't it, that this is the Grauniad from the bland remark that it is a Muslim "child" that will wish for such a something. No other English 'bladet, I feel confident, would neglect to gender that without thinking once.)

�3. Design�r Prinsess!

It is Vickan! And she come with a range of tasteful accessories, for sure. (She even speak!

- Jag tycker det �r v�ldigt sp�nnande, s�ger kronprinsessan Victoria till Expressen.

"I think it is very exciting," said Vickan to Expressen.

Product also comes supplied with "How do you do?" and "I declare this something open!")

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2004-11-16 samwidge (utc)

If that's Atlantis where's the Sub-Mariner?

It's always silly season in archeology, which must be a great comfort, and a bloke (an Amurrcan, who'da thunkit?) is claiming to have found the Lost City Of Atlantis:

The team spent six days scanning the Mediterranean sea bed between Cyprus and Syria using sonar technology. They believe they found evidence of massive, manmade structures beneath the ocean floor, including two straight, 2-km (1.25 mile) long walls on a hill.

Call me old-fashioned, but I'm reserving judgement until they swim down there and dig up some evidence of human inhabitation. At the moment, persons, what you have is an intriguingly shaped rock formation. Extraodinary claims require slightly more extraordinary evidence than that, is it not?

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2004-11-16 09:29

Why I am so inquisitive

In philosophy class, the role of audience member is compatible with asking questions, but less so with disagreement.

Luckily, there is a simple algorithm to transform "I disagree because X" into "But surely X?", and I observe that this is very much the kind of question I tend to ask.

This, I claim, is dialectical interaction, and by no means mere heckling.

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2004-11-15 bonus (utc)

Of Lard and Larders

Who ate all the pies?
Who ate all the pies?

It's Hungary and Polandland! And they're after our yummy lard!

Increased demand from recently-joined members of the European Union has led to a shortfall in available pork to turn into lard, retailers say.

Lard can be used to make mince pies, Christmas pudding and roast potatoes.

It is, of course, also delicious as a snack in its own right. Mmmm, lard!

Somerfield said it has already been forced to limit the number of tubs of lard on sale at each of its stores.

It had advised shoppers to check their local stores when possible to see if another delivery has come in.

"There has been unprecedented demand from Eastern European countries such as Poland and Hungary for the cheapest cuts of pork to meet their demand for sausages, salamis and pies," said a spokeswoman for Somerfield.

You fat bastards,
You fat bastards,
You ate all the pies!

[Trad.]

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2004-11-15 tea (utc)

Sn�, easy on the kaos

Oop North:

Sn�fallet natt til mandag har skapt sv�rt vanskelige kj�reforhold p� mange veier i Troms.

Sn�fall on Sunday night has shaped serverely hard drivening conditions on many roads in Troms.

Troms is firmly in the Arctic circle (that circle of Arcticness!) and it is after all November, so we will forgive their apparent lack of succumbment just this once, and hope for better things as it spreads south.

And the new Beaujolais Nouveau (from Beaujolais, hence the name) is out this weekend. I think it's winter o'clock, me hearties, arrr!

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2004-11-15 12:14

Things I don't know anything about but which often come up on pub quizzes

  1. Contemporary pop music
  2. Soap operas
  3. Holywood movies
  4. Soap operas
  5. Sport

Unfortunately, the first four (4) deficits were shared among our team, otherwise we might have improved on third place.

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2004-11-15 morning (utc+1)

Freudian Refutnings

They say: "Freud makes no testable claims; and besides, they're false; and besides we already knew all that."

I feel I want to say: "Tell me about your mother."

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