Monthly Archives: September 2006

sentence o’ the day

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BBBBBBBB 

Got this via Fark. I’m not sure what it means, and my University education compels me to take the next hour to diagram it out, then write an essay where the number of pages of essay > the number of words in the sentence. That way, I’m guaranteed an “A;” only the really conscientious profs add “may be over-reading it” under the grade, and I try not to hang out with conscientious people, as it harshes my mellow.

The sentence o’ the day, from Wikipedia via Fark:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

That's one, right there! He don't look much like a verb, do he?Redirected from Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo)

“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” is a grammatically valid sentence used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated constructs. It was featured in Steven Pinker‘s 1994 book The Language Instinct, but is known to have been around before February 1992 when it was posted to Linguist List by William J. Rapaport, an associate professor at the University at Buffalo.[1]

Sentences of this type, although not in such a refined form, have been known for a long time. A classical example is a proverb “Don’t trouble trouble until trouble troubles you”.

Also with bonus Boris!

Buffalo ho, yo!

a transatlantic political primer from the daily show

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Here’s a little roundup just to demonstrate that I can tell the countries apart. Everything I know about politics I learned from satirical and handsome television personalities. Hey, there are worse resumes, I’m telling you. I would post a clip of Boris talking about Canada, but all I could find was the Saskatoonberry essay, and let us just say the visuals are not exactly compelling.

First, here’s Jon Stewart on the Canadian terrorist plot:

And here he is again, from last year, on the microscopic differences between the US and the UK leadership:

And here’s a special bonus segment of Rick Mercer’s Talking to Americans. In this episode, he makes asses of people at NYU, Stanford, and the Gore and Bush campaigns:

 

The Mainstream Media on the Mainstream Media on the Blogosphere

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It’s complicated. Watch the Daily Show, with Jon “World’s Greatest Dad” Stewart and learn what the MSM thinks of what the MSM thinks of the Blogosphere.

VampireFreaks disclaimer update

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Looks like things have calmed down at VampireFreaks, although Auntie Angel reports that a lot of people have signed up to the site just to look at Gill‘s pictures and blog, and are still hanging around. There will always be gawkers at a tragedy; Gill himself was a gawker of the Columbine Massacre.

In any case, there’s a new note at VF and an acknowledgement that the media hasn’t actually been all that Goth-bashy after all. Which is no more than the truth; the media mentions Gill’s Goth side because really, other than that, there was nothing whatsoever interesting about him. Without the trenchcoat, shades, metal and guns, he was just another unemployed alcoholic living in his mom’s basement.

The new message from VF:

News Update, Wallpaper contest
 * September 16, 2006 * 
 
Thanks to everyone’s support in light of recent events. There’s been a huge reaction on this site, and really i want to express a thank you to everyone who has been supportive. We will be monitoring the site more closely due to recent events. And once again I offer my sincere sympathy to the victims and their families. It really is a tragic event. I’ve gotten countless emails about the incident, yes a few of them were very negative and close-minded towards goth culture and this site, but the vast majority of feedback i’ve received has been understanding and supportive of the site. Mature adults, not into the goth scene, who are smart enough to see that this site is not to blame for what happened. Also, thanks to the media, for actually not being that hard on goth culture this time. I know that the goth scene and this website in particular has gotten bad publicity in the past, and while a few reporters have decided to make us look bad again and try to place the blame on us, i see that many members of the media are actually starting to be more accepting and understanding of our scene. Anyway, I feel this has been the topic of conversation on here for too long, so lets just move on and go on with our usual site updates. If you want to further discuss these news, please do so in the entry posted before this one, it already has over 7,000 comments related to the incident and this entry is for our new wallpaper design contest…

Greets from Antarctica!

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Finally, a hit from the southernmost continent. Behold the ship of Carinthia’s son, somewhere off Tierra del Fuego. As far as I know they haven’t run it aground in Antarctica, but I’m still counting this as a hit! So that’s all the continents, then.

So where are the penguins?