A daily miasma of frivolity by two wanna-be cultural critics. Or: just, like, some good links, dude.

Author Archives: Mark Twain, probably

Nov 29 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Former OED editor covertly deleted thousand of words, book claims

Former OED editor covertly deleted thousand of words, book claims

Alison Flood, The Guardian:

An eminent former editor of the Oxford English Dictionary covertly deleted thousands of words because of their foreign origins and bizarrely blamed previous editors, according to claims in a book published this week.

Robert Burchfield’s efforts to rewrite the dictionary have been uncovered by Sarah Ogilvie, a linguist, lexicographer and former editor on the OED.

Ogilvie worked for 11 years to research and write Words of the World, published by Cambridge University Press, which challenges the widely held belief that editors of the OED between 1884 and 1933 were Anglocentric Oxford dons obsessed with preserving the Queen’s English, and that it was not until Robert Burchfield’s four supplements, produced between 1972 and 1986, that the dictionary was opened up to the wider world.

An absolutely bonkers story. Who would do something like this? Why?

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Nov 28 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Poland outlaws ritual animal slaughter as EU moves to approve it

Poland outlaws ritual animal slaughter as EU moves to approve it

BBC News report:

Poland’s top court has outlawed the ritual slaughter of animals weeks before the EU is due to allow the practice on religious grounds.

The Constitutional Tribunal said it was against Polish law to allow animals to have their throats cut and bleed to death without first being stunned. Poland has small Muslim and Jewish communities who use such methods.

However, it is unclear whether the ruling will be superseded by a new EU law allowing ritual slaughter. On 1 January, a new regulation takes effect in the EU allowing the practice and setting common standards.

This is probably one of the more bizarre tests of national vs. international law.

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Nov 28 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Filibuster Reform: On Like Donkey Kong

Filibuster Reform: On Like Donkey Kong

Greg Sargent says it’s happening. Good news, I say. Jonathan Bernstein however says Reid’s proposal specifically is a bad idea.

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Nov 27 2012
Mark Twain, probably

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxp5XF7sAfQ

For some reason today I am linking a mashup up Busta Rhymes “Don’t Touch Me (Throw da Water on ‘Em)” and Koji Kondo’s “Athletic” from the game Yoshi’s Island. Music by tenlettername, visualization by stuff3.

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Nov 27 2012
Mark Twain, probably

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGITlEhYfRc

Enjoy “Burlesque in Barcelona”, a ’70s smooth jam from Iceland penned by Jakob Magnússon. (The repeated bassline may sound familiar — it was sampled by Hi-Tek on his track “Round and Round”.)

(Source: http://www.youtube.com/)
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Nov 26 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Bogus dentist accused of kissing buttocks of woman with toothache

Bogus dentist accused of kissing buttocks of woman with toothache

Erika Pesantes for the Sun-Sentinel:

A 47-year-old man has been accused of posing as a dentist, treating a woman for a toothache and kissing her buttocks after administering an injection, according to a Hollywood police report.

This guy seems legit.

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Nov 26 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Ranbaxy recalls generic Lipitor doses

Ranbaxy recalls generic Lipitor doses

Linda A. Johnson, AP:

Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals Inc. has recalled dozens of lots of its generic version of cholesterol drug Lipitor because some may contain tiny glass particles, the latest in a string of manufacturing deficiencies that once led U.S. regulators to bar imports of the Indian company’s medicines.

Glass particles in pills. This is frightening. I am frightened.

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Nov 24 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Dwarf Planet Has No Atmosphere, New Look Suggests

Dwarf Planet Has No Atmosphere, New Look Suggests

Sindya N. Bhanoo reporting for The New York Times:

Not much is known about Makemake, a dwarf planet that circles the Sun beyond Pluto. But scientists got a closer glimpse of it last year, when it passed briefly in front of a star (an event called an occultation), and they report their findings in the current issue of the journal Nature.

Previously, researchers believed that because the surface temperature of Makemake (pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh) is heterogeneous, it might have an atmosphere. “If you have some patches with a higher temperature, the ice melts and creates vapor,” said an author of the new study, Noemi Pinilla-Alonso, a planetary scientist at the University of Tennessee. “And with vapor the planet can develop an atmosphere around it.”

But the new measurements — based on observations from multiple telescopes in different parts of South America — indicate that Makemake, like another dwarf planet, Eris, does not have a significant atmosphere.

I love the things we can figure out about astronomical bodies just by pointing telescopes at them.

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Nov 24 2012
Mark Twain, probably

Could Texas Become A Blue State?

Could Texas Become A Blue State?

Fantastic feature in the New Yorker by Ryan Lizza. The overal thrust of the piece is thusly. Texas has 38 electoral votes — if Texas flips blue it will be nearly impossible for a Republican to make it to the White House. The Hispanic population of Texas is increasing rapidly and there will come a point in the near future where Texas won’t be winnable for Republicans unless they can win a significant share of the Hispanic vote.

A simple observation but Lizza does a lot of really great reporting to underscore this and also to map out what various Republican factions, both in Texas and nationally, are trying to do about it. Set some time aside and read this, for real.

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Nov 23 2012
Mark Twain, probably

“Forgive Me For The Expression, But Mexico’s Name Is Mexico”

“Forgive Me For The Expression, But Mexico’s Name Is Mexico”

RTT News staff report:

Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday sent a proposal to the Parliament to change the official name of the country.

The North American country’s constitution adopts the Spanish name Estados Unidos Mexicanos, which translates as “United Mexican States,” but Calderon wants to change it to just Mexico, by the name the country is known the world over.

…

“Forgive me for the expression, but Mexico’s name is Mexico,” Calderon told reporters at the presidential palace

The formal names of most countries include a noun like “republic” or “kingdom” or “commonwealth,” but there are a few that are just the name and nothing more, like Canada.

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