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2005-07-15 14:47
Gentlepersons of gender or otherwise your attention please!
The votes are counted, the results are in, and the all-time greatest
philosopher of all time (according to listeneurs of Radio Hampstead's
In Our Time) is the bushy-bearded Bolshevik
Karl
"The Spectre" Marx!
The veteran Marxist historian, Eric Hobsbawm, thinks he knows why. His
reasoning is as contemporary as Marx's was visionary. "The Communist
Manifesto," he says, "contains a stunning prediction of the nature and
effects of globalisation."
We're planning a Museum of Things That Aren't About
Globalisation, for sure. Unfortunately, we currently have no
suitable exhibits.
In the public's poll, which assessed 20 philosophers, Marx, author of
the Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital, got 27.93% of the 30,000
votes. In second place came David Hume with 12.67%, followed by Ludwig
Wittgenstein with 6.8%. Plato trailed in fifth place and Socrates at
eighth.
Eighth is still the highest place for a fictional character, since
they didn't include our choice of Wiley E Coyote. (David Hume doesn't
count as fictional, even if he might have disputed that).
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2005-07-15 13:09
The killer's breed or the demon's seed,
The glamour, the fortune, the pain,
Go to war again, blood is freedom's stain,
But don't you pray for my soul anymore.
2 minutes to midnight
The hands that threaten doom.
2 minutes to midnight
To kill the unborn in the womb.
"Two (2) Minutes to Midnight", Iron Maiden
Does the Pope's lack of comment on Iron Maiden mean that he approves?
We shall assume so until we see evidence to the contrary, for sure.
Mosh on, you crazy Pontiff, mosh on!
But anyway:
Harry Potter fans around the world are eagerly awaiting the release of
the sixth book about the boy wizard.
Bookshops in 15 countries - including the UK, US, Brazil and the
Philippines - will open at 0001 BST on Saturday.
That must be great in Californ-eye-ay, asking your parents if you can
stay up till after four (4) o'clock local time. Spoooooky!
Anyway, we'll be up at midnight, for pretty sure, but we have a prior
engagement:
It begins to tell round midnight, midnight
I do pretty well til after sundown
Suppertime I'm feeling sad
But it really gets bad round midnight
"Round tea-time (in California)" Thelonius Sphere Monk et al.
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2005-07-15 11:44
I'd feel so rich in a hut for two (2)
Two (2) rooms and kitchen I'm sure would do
Give me just a plot of, not a lot of land
And thou swell, thou witty, thou grand
"Thou Swell", Rogers and Hart
Vid kungens privata b�thus njuter kronprinsessan och hennes pojkv�n av
sol och bad.
At the king's private boathouse the kronprinsess and her boyfried
enjoy the sun and bathing.
Two rooms, a kitchen, a personal chef and a yacht. And thou swell,
thou witty, thou grand. And
a pony!
Not all the bits, it seems to us, of being a prinsess are as
not easy as others.
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2005-07-14 15:19
Back when he was just plain Cardinal "Ratbag" Ratzinger, the silly
Pope expressed some typically
silly opinions about Harry Potteur:
P�ven Benedictus XVI varnade f�r Harry Potter-b�ckerna i ett brev han
skrev under sin tid som kardinal. [...] Bland annat skriver han att
b�ckerna �r en fara f�r unga l�sare och att de undergr�ver
kristendomen i deras sj�lar.
Pope Benedictus XVI warned against the Harry Potter books in a letter
he wrote during his time as cardinal. [...] Amongst other things he
wrote that the books are a danger for young readers and that they
undermine christianity in their souls.
From someone who does live-action cosplay for a day job, you'd expect
a bit more understanding about fantasy worlds, isn't it?
But get with the Excommunicardus! spells already, would you?
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2005-07-14 12:45
Vair
vair hard!
Europe's security body, the OSCE, is to hold a meeting in Vienna
focusing on the need to respect human rights in the fight against
terrorism.
Human-rights experts and government officials from member countries
will be discussing how to provide security without diminishing civil
liberties.
Think quickly, porcodynamicistes, while we still have some liberties
left!
Forcing European companies to store phone and internet records is
among anti-terror measures agreed by EU interior ministers.
UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke chaired an emergency summit on terror
measures after the London bombs.
This is "just" connection data, for now. Like the ID card scam, it
will have exactly no impact on terrorisme or organised crime, but so
what?
Tony "Baloney" Blair, of all people, recently remarked:
Bodies set up to guard the public interest have one-way pressures. It
is in their interest never to be accused of having missed a
problem. So, it is a one-sided bet. They will always err on the side
of caution.
It seems to be part of the DNA of regulatory bodies that they acquire
their own interests and begin to grow. Max Weber famously noted the
tendency of bureaucracies to tidiness.
It will never occur to him that his governments "security" agenda fits
this bill better than EU regulation ever could, or that it's a more
serious problem. Which is a shame.
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2005-07-14 10:32
Bad hippies! No organic wholemeal fairtrade biscuit!
The English language edition of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood
Prince' hits the bookstores on 16 July. The good guys are the Canadian
and German publishers for printing the book on ancient forest friendly
papers. Bloomsbury, the UK publisher of Harry Potter, has also made
some good progress, and the Italian and Israeli editions are also
expected to join the forces of good when the translations are
published in the autumn.
Consider "ancient forest friendly paper". Maybe
"ancient-forest-friendly" is too much to ask of the hyphen-averse
Englishes, but even if it was "ancient-forest friendly paper" it would
've saved me wondering what the point of ancient paper was or why I
should be interested in its friendships.
In other news, the US publishers are the environmental Bad Guys. Bet
you didn't see that coming...
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2005-07-13 15:16
There is a very good reason why a small Welsh foopball club is called
Total Network Solutions, but we have forgotten it. Also, we have lost
the link for this quote:
Benitez avverte i suoi: �Non sottovalutiamo il Tns�. Che per� offr� il
suo posto in Europa in cambio di un'amichevole. [...]
Il club inglese affronter� i gallesi del Total Network Solutions,
squadra del minuscolo villaggio di Llansantffraid, per il primo turno
preliminare di Champions League.
Um... buene, buene. Thing is, Liverpool foopball club, whose victory
in the League of Champions we have not ceased to bitterly resent, have
been gifted a slot in this year's tournament to defend their title,
despite not having earned it on their domestic form. We bitterly
resent this, too.
Somewhat-redemptively, though, they've been forced to start at the
bottom of the heap and force their way through a succession of minnows
to get into the groop stages. And we are going to be cheering and
cheering and CHEERING on their many opponents every step of the way.
We don't know what colour shirts the pride of Llansantffraid play in,
but allez in any case les quelqueconques !
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2005-07-13 11:44
�1. Let T be a throne...
Monaco's
Albert II assumes throne. If it's good enough for Bertie, it's
good enough for us.
�2. It isn't easy being a prinsess!
It is to be kronprinsess Vickan's birthday, and 6000 persons are
turning up, and her bestly belov�d boyfriend isn't
one of them.
Kronprinsessan Victoria portar sin egen pojkv�n p� f�delsedagen.
Hon vill inte att Daniel visar sig p� den stora festen i morgon.
Kronprinsess Vickan has barred her own boyfriend from her birthday.
She doesn't want Daniel to come to the big pary tomorrow.
There's all sorts of mallarkey about why, but we suspect the real
reason is that she doesn't think he's ready for the Traditional
Folk Dress. We, for one, will be saving the Traditional Folk Dress
for after we're married. (We're old-fashioned like that, we admit.)
�3. A word for the day
Swedish:
Nippertippa:
a vain or silly wench. (Quoting from memory from a dictionary
definition. We had our doubts that anyone would dare use the word in
these enlightened times, but now we have a source.)
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2005-07-13 10:13
This is the list of titles
and styles the Queen Mother (gawd bless 'er) had
managed to accumulate by the time of her clog-poppning:
The Most High, Most Mighty and Most Excellent Princess Elizabeth, Queen
Dowager and Queen Mother, Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter,
Lady of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle, Lady of
the Imperial Order of the Crown of India, Grand Master and Dame Grand
Cross of the Royal Victorian Order upon whom had been conferred the
Royal Victorian Chain, Dame Grand Cross of the Most Excellent Order of
the British Empire, Dame Grand Cross of the Most Venerable Order of
the Hospital of St John, Relict of His Majesty King George the Sixth
and Mother of Her Most Excellent Majesty Elizabeth The Second by the
Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland and of her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the
Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, Sovereign of the Most Noble Order
of the Garter.
We want to live longer and die with a longer list of random junk
impersonating our name. Your cooperation is appreciated.
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2005-07-12 16:02
�1. It's that weather again.
It's past 15h00 localtime and I still haven't had my samwidge.
Apparently Mathree has lastingly reset the thermotemporal
configuration of my tummy, with not especially hilarious consequences.
�2. Random Harry Potter story
Some foolishperson in Kanananada sold copies early:
Men redan nu har boken s�lts av en bokhandel n�ra Vancouver i
Kanada. F�r att hindra att detaljer i bokens handling l�cks har en
domstol i British Columbia beslutat att spridande av bokens inneh�ll
�r olagligt innan boken officiellt har kommit ut.
We're not translating that because it's too hot and it's actually
already a translation of a
Beeb story.
We're not committed to reading the new one on the day, for once.
We've got Anna Karenininina to read, and OU stuff, and we only
recently acquired the French poche of HP V. We might break
down and read it soon or even sooner, since we can churn through
Rowling's prose like nobody's business, but not, we think, on the day.
�3. Like sommarholidays, only with more work
Our demanding work- and essay-schedule at the University of Openness
doesn't slack off over the sommar one little bit. The tutorials, on
the other hand, have now finished till September.
So that'll be interesting; we'll see how the onlineconference holds
up, for sure.
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2005-07-12 12:55
�1. Dutchcrickettriumph!
The Netherlands claimed the final qualifying place at the 2007 Cricket
World Cup on Monday as they trounced the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by
145 runs in the International Cricket Council (ICC) Trophy fifth-place
play-off.
They beat the Danishes in a previous round.
�2. Danishpizzauntriumph!
Copenhagen - A Danish pizzeria owner went to jail Tuesday for refusing
to serve French and German tourists in protesting their countries'
opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
A Danish court found Aage Bjerre guilty of discrimination and
sentenced him to pay a fine of 5,000 kroner ($900 U.S.). Mr. Bjerre
refused to pay, and will now serve an eight-day sentence at a minimum
security prison.
�3. Englishcricketuntriumph
WICKET! G Jones c Kasprowicz b Gillespie 1 (93-6) Moronic
batting from Geraint Jones, who carves a Gillespie long-hop straight
to third man. And on comes Vikram Solanki as the supersub. That means
one of the bowlers will miss out. My money's on Darren Gough.
We're not going to explain what a supersub is because it's new and
vair vair silly. It is not, however, any excuse for the pig's ear
England are making of this.
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2005-07-12 10:30
The dread treaty of Westphalia was all the rage in last night's
tutorial. Our tutor was pitching it as a one monarch per state deal
(without even mentioning our glorious Imperial Office). We asked, of
course, exactly who was king of the United
Provinces (of what is now the Netherlands) since the answer is, of
course, nobody, but he thought it was the Spanish king. He is not, it
is only fair to admit, billed as a historian:
The United Provinces first tried to choose their own lord, and they
asked the Duke of Anjou (sovereign from 1581-1583) to rule
them. Later, after the assassination of William of Orange (July 10,
1584), Henry III of France and Elizabeth I of England both declined
the offer of sovereignty. However, the latter agreed to turn the
United Provinces into a protectorate of England (Treaty of Nonsuch,
1585), and sent the Earl of Leicester as governor-general. This was
not a success, and in 1588 the provinces became a Republic.
The Republic was officially recognized in the Peace of Westphalia
(1648), and lasted until French revolutionary forces invaded in 1795
and set up a new republic, called the Batavian Republic, which would
be replaced by the French-controlled Kingdom of Holland.
(We had been wondering how it derepubliced itself. We shouldn't've
been, really, since the answer to almost any question about late
C18/early C19 history is pretty much guaranteed to be "Napoleon".)
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2005-07-11 15:54
It is prinsess Madeleine of Sweden on a horse and she is wearing only a
flimsy baseballcap!
N�r prinsessan Madeleine kopplar av p� �land rider hon utan hj�lm.
When prinsess Madeleine relaxes on Beerduck she rides without a helmet.
We can see it for bicycles, but surely horses are relatively stable
(no pun intended)? Our many cavalry troops wear helmets, of course,
but that is more down to the pikestaffs and muskets of their equally
many opponents. We wouldn't hire cavalry troops that fell off their
horses unprovoked, for sure.
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2005-07-11 13:48
The modern nation-state is often claimed to be a result of the Treaty
of Westphalia. We don't much care for nation-states, which are
hotbeds of nationalisme, so we were ill-disposed to this such silly
treaty to start with. But this is an
outrage!:
Another important result of the treaty was it laid rest to the idea of
the Holy Roman Empire having secular dominion over the entire
Christian world. The nation-state would be the highest level of
government, subservient to no others.
We didn't declare ourself Holy Roman Emperor to put up with this sort
of insubordination! Your insolence will be punished,
nation-so-called-states!
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2005-07-11 09:56
When you're mired in constitutional flux
And the political skies are gloomy and grey
You just need a helping hand from Lux-
embourg, to make a bright Yoorpean day!
Well done Luxembourg!
Luxembourg voters approved the European Union's proposed constitution
in a referendum Sunday, a move the country's prime minister had hoped
would revive the charter following its rejection in France and The
Netherlands.
We are so mind-bogglingly pro-EU that we find it entirely plausible
that this might work, but we wouldn't recommend trying that at home.
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