While I’ve internalized selections from The Jargon File (well, sections thereof, from particular versions) I have to admit that the stuff in the new programming jargon collection run recently at Stack Overflow is all new to me. I don’t see myself using many of them heavily, but I think I can see drug/shrug/smug report all making their way into my lexicon.
Tag: secret history
You can learn something new every day
I followed a stay Twitter link today that lead to this short discussion of how to deal with someone acting racist: I found that interesting enough that I spent some time looking at other vlogs from the same dude, which lead me to this one, East Coast Cats and Christopher Street Boys, which I particularly liked: I’m pretty New York… Read more →
Was He The Last Ottoman?
I saw a story on Wikinews today about the death a couple of days ago, at age 97, of Ertuğrul Osman, who, according to the story was the last pretender to the throne of the Ottoman Empire. That lead to some fascinating reading about the Ottoman Dynasty (start here) who ran the Empire for more than 625 years until the… Read more →
Quaero mihi similes, et adiungor pravis.
I spent a lot of time last night looking at translations of Latin and Middle High German poetry. Oh, and listening to what I can only refer to as operatic renditions of the pieces. How did this happen? Well, actually, like many times when I start following a trail of weird connections, it all comes back to James Burke–usually just… Read more →
Aside
While I’m mildly interested in the medical issues surrounding tire dust and latex allergies that Peter Montague raises in his piece “Tire Dust“, I’m much more interested in the history of automotive cabals explicitly destroying electric public transit, as that’s something I was previously unfamiliar with (and frankly, from this one source I don’t have enough to know if it’s something that can be tarred with the “conspiracy theory” brush, despite having footnotes
A What-Day-Is-It-Anyway Miscellany
I have now been on vacation long enough that I don’t remember what day it is. I think “if it’s Wednesday it must be San Francisco” logic may apply. With that in mind, here’s a list of a few things that caught my eye during my little bits of hotel-room surfing after the child goes to bed: The Pirate Bay… Read more →
The Assassins: One
Hashish Poem Swear off wine and drink from the cup of Haydar, amber–scented, smarigdite green. Look: it is offered to you by a slender Turkish gazelle who sways delicate as a willow bough. As he prepares it, you might compare it to the traces of fine down on a blushing cheek since even the slightest breeze makes it move as… Read more →
Lottery
Among the artifacts were a few scribbled notes and I recognized the handwriting. Chris McLaren was a film major who worked for us in the early ’80’s, a skinny kid who wore black clothes and spiked hair and had an intense interest in Alistair Crowley, Roman Polanski, the Illuminati and role playing games. Even when you were face to face… Read more →
With A Bit Of History
I had a friend ask me a few days back for recommendations of works of historical fiction by more-or-less modern authors. I happen to be quite ready for this question, since I enjoy knowing things, and I find well-written historical fiction one of the easiest ways to absorb the details of history. Fiction, by definition, is made up, but fiction… Read more →
A short break from politics
And now, a few observations about things completely unrelated to either North American election: That Wisdom book showed up today. Totally worth the money. It’s been a long time since I bought a “coffee table book”, but if I had a coffee table I’d be proud to leave this out on it. You know where I’m find more interesting reading… Read more →
A Linkpost Before Sleeping
I think I’m going to soon look at setting up the site with “asides”, so that instead of gathering up large buckets of links that I have only a few comments on, I can just drop them in as “asides” between my longer and more content-y posts. In the meantime, another (possibly final) agglomeration of miscellaneous links. This might be… Read more →
