Here are some quick facts you can use at cocktail parties to show that you are, indeed smarter than the people around you.
-The names of the MGM Lions, in order of use are "Slats" "Jackie" "Tanner" and "Leo". There is an unnamed fourth lion in the sequence, who roared mid-1956 to early 1957.
-Lasersdisc was first sold in 1978 under the name DiscoVision. The first title marketed in North America was Jaws, and the last title released in North America was Sleepy Hollow in 2000.
- The ritual of burning sugar over a glass Absinthe dates from the late 1990's and is not a historical method of serving the drink. This is done with bohemian-style 'absinth' because it lacks many of the oils that create a louche when water is dripped in.
-The book "A Clockwork Orange" was inspired by a real assault on the author's wife. The book inspired a film, which inspired Arthur Bremer to shoot Governor George Wallace. Bremer's diary inspired the film "Taxi Driver" which in turn inspired John Hinckley, Jr. to take a few shots at Ronald Reagan. Don't ever think people can't be inspirational.
Showing posts with label Wikipedia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wikipedia. Show all posts
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Buffalo Redux
As a follow-up to my previous post about Bison Behaviour, here is a great cartoon by Greg Williams about the phenomenon. I'm surprised no one has corrected the phrase noting that "American Buffalo" are "Bison", and not true buffalo. The sentence still stands as a high mark in both linguistic gymnastics and absurdist comedy.
This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Friday, December 15, 2006
Funny Wikipedia Category
I found a great collection of Fictional Balls on Wikipedia. If you can read that with no giggling, you are more mature than I.
Bigger, funnier and better conceived posts are in the works, so hang on.
"Some balls are held for charity, and some for fancy dress, but when they're held for pleasure they're the balls that I like best." - AC/DC "Big Balls"
Bigger, funnier and better conceived posts are in the works, so hang on.
"Some balls are held for charity, and some for fancy dress, but when they're held for pleasure they're the balls that I like best." - AC/DC "Big Balls"
Friday, November 24, 2006
Five more random Wikipedia Pages
Once again, I hit the random article button on the English Wikipedia five times. These are the articles it returned. Read each in their entirety and learn something new. If you find an error, consider fixing it for the next user.
As the Zen Buddhists say, "The only bad Duttaphrynus himalaynus is no Duttaphrynus himalaynus."
As the Zen Buddhists say, "The only bad Duttaphrynus himalaynus is no Duttaphrynus himalaynus."
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
For the love of Wiki
I love Wikipedia. This is no secret. I love the concept of the "Wiki". I love the community, the good will, and collective common good that result from wikiuse. The ease in which information can be collected, distributed and corrected makes a Wiki the fastest way to get large amounts of information from a distributed network.
Besides Wikipedia, here are some of my favourite wiki projects that I use regularly:
Are there any other cool wikisites that others should know about? Comments are encouraged.
Technorati Tags:
Wikipedia, Wikis, Lists
Besides Wikipedia, here are some of my favourite wiki projects that I use regularly:
- Kingdom of Loathing Wiki - See yesterday's post
- Homestar Runner Wiki - I'm an admin there
- Firefly Wiki - Your guide to the 'verse
- Harry Potter Wiki - A muggle's guide to the wizarding world
- Connrunner's Wiki - A must for running a Science Fiction Convention
- Lostpedia - The best way to keep track of every little clue and red herring from "Lost"
- Wookieepedia - The Star Wars Fanboi promised land
- Memory Alpha - The Star Trek guide
- Wickerpedia - The Wicker encyclopedia
Are there any other cool wikisites that others should know about? Comments are encouraged.
Technorati Tags:
Wikipedia, Wikis, Lists
Saturday, September 23, 2006
DragonCon 2006: Last Day Monday
Monday is a little more sedate at DragonCon. Even though programming runs until 5:00, many people spend the morning checking out of the hotel to save on an extra night.
We spent the previous night shaking our groove things at the Drum Circle after the Yule Ball so we slept in a little. The drum circle made veritate and Lexial want to take up bellydancing again, and made defender75 and I want to hit the Gym. We are coming back to D*Con as bronzed gods.
I honestly don't remember much of Monday. I don't think I wore a costume beyond my geek patch shirt. I had a nice little lunch then off to some panels.
First up was "Unsolved Codes" hosted by Elonka Dunin, a noted cryptographer. First she debunked the Da Vinci Code as the load fiction that it is. Then she gave a brief review of her work with Kryptos, the Code challenge sculpture on the CIA grounds. She is the leading expert on Kryptos and is very passionate about the work, the artist and its eventual solution.
She also reviewed some of the world's famous unsolved codes, including the Voynich Manuscript. I was a little disappointed to find out that she thinks the work is a hoax, as it has intrigued me for several years. I will save a detailed explanation of the Voynich Manuscript for another post, but I will include a sample page to show why it is so compelling.
The next panel up was "The Wikipedia Effect" which I was quite excited for as I am a strong supporter of Wikipedia, but the presentation was directed towards convincing neophytes of the value of the project, and not to long time contributors. I left this panel early.
And then the event was done. Not with a bang but with a *sigh, that was fun lets do it all again soon*.
Our whole squad got together for the first time Monday in preparation for dinner. Individual schedules kept us in smaller "fireteams" through the weekend so it was nice to see everyone all at once.
(missing from this picture is iRob/iJenn as they had to leave early for home)
We all want to go back again sometime, though for me it may be an every-other-year thing to save money. I will eventually post some conclusions I came to during my trip, but that will have to wait.
Yours in Fandom
Drhaggis.
Technorati Tags:
Dragoncon 2006, Elonka Dunin, Kryptos, Convention report, Fandom
We spent the previous night shaking our groove things at the Drum Circle after the Yule Ball so we slept in a little. The drum circle made veritate and Lexial want to take up bellydancing again, and made defender75 and I want to hit the Gym. We are coming back to D*Con as bronzed gods.
I honestly don't remember much of Monday. I don't think I wore a costume beyond my geek patch shirt. I had a nice little lunch then off to some panels.
First up was "Unsolved Codes" hosted by Elonka Dunin, a noted cryptographer. First she debunked the Da Vinci Code as the load fiction that it is. Then she gave a brief review of her work with Kryptos, the Code challenge sculpture on the CIA grounds. She is the leading expert on Kryptos and is very passionate about the work, the artist and its eventual solution.She also reviewed some of the world's famous unsolved codes, including the Voynich Manuscript. I was a little disappointed to find out that she thinks the work is a hoax, as it has intrigued me for several years. I will save a detailed explanation of the Voynich Manuscript for another post, but I will include a sample page to show why it is so compelling.
The next panel up was "The Wikipedia Effect" which I was quite excited for as I am a strong supporter of Wikipedia, but the presentation was directed towards convincing neophytes of the value of the project, and not to long time contributors. I left this panel early.
- Panel Count Monday: Two
- Total Panel Count: Seven, a record?
And then the event was done. Not with a bang but with a *sigh, that was fun lets do it all again soon*.
Our whole squad got together for the first time Monday in preparation for dinner. Individual schedules kept us in smaller "fireteams" through the weekend so it was nice to see everyone all at once.
(missing from this picture is iRob/iJenn as they had to leave early for home)Yours in Fandom
Drhaggis.
Technorati Tags:
Dragoncon 2006, Elonka Dunin, Kryptos, Convention report, Fandom
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Faux Soviet Meme #4
To close out my "Super Soviet" series, I thought I would lift something from Wikipeda, where all text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.
Graphic designers sometimes employ faux Cyrillic typography to give a Soviet or Russian feel to text, by replacing Latin letters with Cyrillic letters resembling them in appearance. A simple way to accomplish this is to replace capital letters R and N with Cyrillic Я and И, for some "Яussiaи flavor". Other examples include Ш for W, Ц for U, Г for r, Ф for O, Д for A, and Ч or У for Y.
This effect is usually restricted to text set in all-caps. In Cyrillic typography, most upright lowercase letters resemble smaller uppercase letters, unlike the more distinctive forms of Latin-alphabet type (cursive Cyrillic letters are more differentiated).
This is a common Western trope used in book covers, film titles, comic book lettering, and artwork for computer games which are set in the Soviet Union or Russian Federation. An early example was the logo for Norman Jewison's film The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming. It is important to note that not all names with Cyrillic-like characters in them are Faux Cyrillic; an example is the imitation of small children's erroneous writing of mirrored letters, such as the mirrored "R" in the Toys Я Us toy store name.It should be noted that none of the Cyrillic characters are pronounced the same way as their Roman lookalikes.
For example the Cyrillic letter "Я" looks like the Latin "R" but the actual Russian pronunciation is /ja/ as in "yard".
To us monolinguists, this is still fairly neat.
Source:
Faux Cyrillic. (2006, June 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 06:20, June 24, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Faux_Cyrillic&oldid=57799210.
Tags: Soviet CCCP memes Cyrillic
Graphic designers sometimes employ faux Cyrillic typography to give a Soviet or Russian feel to text, by replacing Latin letters with Cyrillic letters resembling them in appearance. A simple way to accomplish this is to replace capital letters R and N with Cyrillic Я and И, for some "Яussiaи flavor". Other examples include Ш for W, Ц for U, Г for r, Ф for O, Д for A, and Ч or У for Y.
This effect is usually restricted to text set in all-caps. In Cyrillic typography, most upright lowercase letters resemble smaller uppercase letters, unlike the more distinctive forms of Latin-alphabet type (cursive Cyrillic letters are more differentiated).
This is a common Western trope used in book covers, film titles, comic book lettering, and artwork for computer games which are set in the Soviet Union or Russian Federation. An early example was the logo for Norman Jewison's film The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming. It is important to note that not all names with Cyrillic-like characters in them are Faux Cyrillic; an example is the imitation of small children's erroneous writing of mirrored letters, such as the mirrored "R" in the Toys Я Us toy store name.It should be noted that none of the Cyrillic characters are pronounced the same way as their Roman lookalikes.
For example the Cyrillic letter "Я" looks like the Latin "R" but the actual Russian pronunciation is /ja/ as in "yard".
To us monolinguists, this is still fairly neat.
Source:
Faux Cyrillic. (2006, June 10). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 06:20, June 24, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Faux_Cyrillic&oldid=57799210.
Tags: Soviet CCCP memes Cyrillic
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Five Random Wikipedia Pages
I hit the Random article button on the English Wikipedia five times. These are the articles it returned. Read each in their entirety and learn something new.
As the Amish say, "You learn something new about Freddie Prinze, Jr. every day."
As the Amish say, "You learn something new about Freddie Prinze, Jr. every day."
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