Archive for the ‘Words’ Category
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6
Jan
2012
The Chaos
A poem by Gerard Nolst Trenité demonstrating the abundant irregularities of English spelling and pronunciation. More info here. Read the rest of this entry »
2
Nov
2011
17
Apr
2011
Comb-me quickly; don’t put me so much pomatum. What news tell me? all hairs dresser are newsmonger.
The title of this blogpost is taken from English As She Is Spoke, a 19th century Portugese-English phrase book which I’ve spent the last hour reading on the train. It’s living up to all expectations. You can enjoy the entire book here.
3
Dec
2010
Qaeda Quality Question Quickly Quickly Quiet
I rather like the “A”, “Amer-kawh”, “and”, “for” and “great” bits.
10
Oct
2010
Yo dawg, I heard you like linguistics…
Came across this amusing Inception / Yo Dawg meme face-off the other day on reddit. It led me back to one of my favourite linguistic peculiarities, the sentence “Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.” Its Wikipedia page seems to have been updated since the last time I had a look at it, as there are a few other interesting linguistic cases linked, none of which I’d come across before. I especially enjoyed the sentence “James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher”. And then I stumbled across this old Chinese poem, “The Lion-eating Poet in the Snow Den“:
The text, although written in Classical Chinese, can be easily comprehended by most educated readers. However, changes in pronunciation over 2,500 years resulted in a large degree of homophony in Classical Chinese, so the poem becomes completely incomprehensible when spoken out in Standard Mandarin or when written romanized in Standard Mandarin.
Pretty remarkable. Its Wikipedia page, linked above, is rather detailed and well worth a read.
Here’s a video of the poem being read aloud in Standard Mandarin:
16
Aug
2010
Welcome to Reykjavík
An eccentric little piece from Reykjavík’s Mayor. Click to enlarge.
Thanks to Hugh for bringing this to my attention.
17
Jul
2010
For a soldier he leads a very fine life and he always is blessed with a charming young wife
Paul Brady’s legendary 1977 recording of the old Irish anti-recruitment song Arthur McBride:
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23
Jun
2010
Writing without reading
A curious case of a professional writer who awoke one morning to find his capacity to read crippled by a stroke. Animation and narration from Lev Yilmaz. You can watch the video here. For some reason the embedding seems to be a bit mucked-up.
18
Jun
2010
The biggest problem with Libertarian thinking
A member of reddit, quag7, contributes to a thread entitled “I am a registered Libertarian, but it seems the party has lost its way” in /r/Libertarian. Reposting here in full. Thanks to Hugh for bringing this to my attention:
For me, the biggest problem with libertarian thinking isn’t what its critics say: that is promotes some kind of immorality in its defense of self-interest in the context of capitalist economics.
Where I got off the bus is when I realized how terribly unsustainable libertarianism is, the naivete about how money corrupts, money being to power what matter is to energy. And lastly, the lack of consideration given to how unequal the playing field is, how much class does matter, and how libertarians seek to make a “clean break” from interventionist corporatism to capitalism without addressing the massive chain of abuse which has resulted into the polarization of the wealthy and the poor.
Unsustainability – most libertarians support the free market on the basis of rights and morality, not out of pure utilitarianism, but most tend to believe that a free market in a libertarian context would also provide the greatest opportunities to the greatest amount of people. I think this, too, is a matter of faith. So long as you allow the top few percent to own the vast majority of wealth, you will always have an underclass voting itself, amending the constitution, rioting, or revolting to get some of the upper or ruling class’s money. This is why Marxism refuses to go away in the Third World. Conservatives and classical liberals like to insinuate it has something to do with bankrupt political and economic ideals in an academic context (“Ivory tower Marxists”) but in reality the reason why socialism and communism continue to find purchase in the third world is because of crippling poverty, including things like landlessness, where you can inhabit a piece of land for generations, but someone just deeds it out from under you (a Zapatista complaint).
Labor movements, social welfare programs, guranteed minimum incomes — all of these proceed from human need, and I see no indication that the somewhat benign term “self interest” applies here, as much as “crass greed” does. Libertarians practically celebrate the concepts of wage slavery, sweatshops, and so forth, because – they say – that the people working in them would be “worse off yet” without them. Good luck, 5 years down the line, making that case while the peasants get restless. How anyone feels about the morality of who gets how much pie and who has to share, the reality is that humankind will only put up with so much before organizing, revolting, striking, or otherwise influencing the system such that it is more equitable for the poor – and more offensive to libertarians. No document will constrain that. Read the rest of this entry »
22
Apr
2010
a good day
A while back, I ordered a netbook to use primarily for “getting stuff done” while out-and-about, and also for writing blog entries on. What’s ironic is that since getting it, there has been what is most likely the longest period of neglect suffered by ventolin.org. Well, it’s at most a shame, as things have been very hectic lately…
However, I had a remarkable day when I went out to Blanchardstown to pick the new laptop up. On the bus was a pair of African women, who had the amusing and interesting habit of peppering their mile-a-minute speech in their own native language with very Irish interjections. One would start “It’s just, like,” before launching into a rapidly told story and ending with “d’ye know the way?” I eventually got off, found the depot, picked up my laptop and left, only to return a few seconds later when I realised I had no change for the bus. After planting a €5 note down on the counter and asking whether I could get change, the chap behind the counter refused, pulled out some loose change and insisted I simply take it.
Waiting at the bus stop now, I flagged down the first bus that came along and asked if he was driving into town. It turned out he wasn’t, but ordered me on-board anyway, saying he’d give me a free trip down to another bus stop which was serviced by many more buses than the previous one. I happily obliged, and thanks to the man’s kindness, spent maybe only a minute or two at the next bus stop before I was headed back home.
Home, where I opened the door to find a curious package in the hallway. A book, by Alan Watts – and despite there being no note I knew just who had sent it, given we’d both recently discovered the eachother’s interest in his work and ideas. A lovely surprise with a friendly nod-and-a-wink.
I’d started the day with the not-so-minor annoyance of having to trek quite a bit across the city in terrible weather, but with the help of others’ acts of kindness and goodwill, everything changed beyond recognition.
A good day!
