Periodic Dosage Archive 2010-07

Poynter Institute, Language Log, Grammar (random thoughts)

Humor: Liam Show: Shoes (Kelly song)

Top 10 most popular pages of my “Human Animals and Their Songs” project. The top one is viewed 746 times in last 30 days. The 10th is viewed 203 times

3 old videos.

Apple iPad, Censorship (commentary)

World Literature Classics; Thoughts Extempore (comment)

The torture porn scifi, The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect, is now available as a printed book. Buy at amazon.

Discovered that the Unabomber has recently published a collection of his writings. 《Technological Slavery: The Collected Writings of Theodore J. Kaczynski, a.k.a. “The Unabomber”》 (2010), by Theodore Kaczynski. Buy at amazon.

For his 1995 Manifesto, see: Unabomber Manifesto (Industrial Society and its Future).

Fasting, Religion, Mind Control (comment)

Shoot'em Up Video Games (some screenshot and video)

Update: Facebook's Ethics.

Majorish update: The Writing Style of Xah Lee.

Got a email today from a author asking permission to quote a commentary i made on a poem.

The poem is: 木蘭辭 (Mulan Ballad). (yes, Disney made a animation out of it) He is writing a book about the poem. (in Spanish for Spanish communities) The requested quote is:

Basically, the entire Mulan fable stems from this ballad. Note the ridiculousness of it. How can a girl, in military for 12 years, and fellow soldiers do not realize that she is a female? If so, she must be very unusual and manly. In modern times, she'd be a butcher dyke, or medically and psychologically certified transsexual.

Am delighted.

Note that this article is also cited in a book:

Linguaggio e genere Luraghi
Linguaggio e genere: grammatica e usi (2006), By Silvia Luraghi, Anna Olita. (ISBN 8843039261, 9788843039265) Buy at amazon The title in English is: Language and gender: grammar and usage.

Added Unification Church (Moonies) and David Icke to the page Cults: Lawsonomy, David Icke, Moonie, Falun Gong, Raelism. (cults)

Intro to a fantastic software: Google Earth Geography 101, and Google Earth Files.

Operation Paperclip. Quote:

Operation Paperclip was the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) program used to recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany for employment by the United States in the aftermath of World War II (1939 to 1945). It was executed by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), and in the context of the burgeoning Soviet–American Cold War (1945 to 1991), one purpose of Operation Paperclip was to deny German scientific knowledge and expertise to the USSR[1] and the UK.[2]

Although the JIOA's recruitment of German scientists began after the European Allied victory (8 May 1945), US President Harry Truman did not formally order the execution of Operation Paperclip until August 1945. Truman's order expressly excluded anyone found “to have been a member of the Nazi Party, and more than a nominal participant in its activities, or an active supporter of Nazi militarism.” Said restriction would have rendered ineligible most of the scientists the JIOA had identified for recruitment, among them rocket scientists Wernher von Braun and Arthur Rudolph, and the physician Hubertus Strughold, each earlier classified as a “menace to the security of the Allied Forces”.

To circumvent President Truman's anti-Nazi order, and the Allied Potsdam and Yalta agreements, the JIOA worked independently to create false employment and political biographies for the scientists. The JIOA also expunged from the public record the scientists' Nazi Party memberships and régime affiliations. Once “bleached” of their Nazism, the US Government granted the scientists security clearance to work in the United States. Paperclip, the project's operational name, derived from the paperclips used to attach the scientists’ new political personæ to their “US Government Scientist” JIOA personnel files.[3]

Watched the movie The Ghost Writer (2010) today. Directed by Roman Polanski. Based on a screenplay written by him and Harris. Stars Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan.

It's fantastic. The story is about a British Prime Minister who hired a writer to write his autobiography. (such writer is called ghostwriter) The previous ghostwriter died on the job. The new ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) is the main character. Thru his job, he discovered that the previous writer might have been murdered. That unfolds the story.

I didn't know about the term ghostwriter before. Wikipedia comes to the rescue: Ghostwriter. Great reading. You know, in newspapers, you read about how some Hollywood stars, singers, or other celebrity, write a autobiography or some book on some overnight well-known incidence. How do these dummies do it? Ghostwriter! Then i also read Essay mill. These days, writing for someone else, especially for college student's essay homework, seem common.

Btw, i can help you too. $50 usd per 500 words essay.

Google Earth Files.

Poor Unfortunate Souls (music video, lyrics analysis)

21st Century Schizoid Man (music video, lyrics, psychiatry; politics)

Womanizer by Britney Spears (music video)

珊瑚恋 (A Coral Romance) (music video; lyrics, poetry)

Humor: Podunk Town Midwest USA: Lazy Muncie (song video) (humor; music video)

Beat It (song lyrics analysis)

Whatever You Like (Gossip Girl) (music video; lyrics)

It's July 4th again! Today it's USA's birthday. If you spot any star-spangled things, please send me a photo! I collect them at: Banners, Damsels, and Mores.

New commentary: Life on Mars and Space Oddity, both by David Bowie.

Strut, by Sheena Easton (music video and lyrics analysis)