Watch a gifted sculptor morph a statue of a beautiful young woman into a meth addict.
Not even once.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
They speak the regular way
Which is the meaning of the name “Illinois.”
This map is intriguing. Prepared by the Atlas of True Names, it shows each state with the translated meaning of the state’s name. I wondered about the accuracy of the effort when I saw Utah described as “Land of the Sun,” when everyone here knows that Utah means “people of the mountains;’ however, a bit more digging revealed that linguistically, the word “Ute” means “the high land” or “the land of the sun,” which by metonymy could be extended to meaning the people who live in a high place, or the mountains.
Anyway, it’s presented here for your gratuitous enjoyment. Check out the other maps offered by the Atlas… I’d love to have some of these in hard copy on my walls.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
Italian satirical map of Europe, 1870
This gives you a sense of what was going on in the geopolitical sphere of Europe in the late 19th century.
Found at Maps on the Web; enlarged and enhanced a bit for visibility.
Play with your Food – How to make Sconic Sections
I love this so much I had to share it.
You can find the entire article, complete with recipe, over at The Evil Mad Scientist.
The Old Wolf is drooling.
Hypocrisy: Unchained
Found at Reddit:
There is a serious cognitive disconnect in our society. Paula Deen has been pretty much thrown in the dumpster for using the word “nigger”… once. Yet “Django Unchained” throws that word around one hundred and thirteen times, and earns an 88% (reviewers) / 94% (audience) rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
This isn’t Huckleberry Finn, a book written in 1884 and “a product of its times” (that book uses the word 203 times, by the way)… this is a 2012 production that has grossed over $423 million, and won two academy awards – one for best screenplay.
I abhor prejudice and discrimination in all its forms. Ms. Deen committed a serious error in judgment when she dropped that word in public [1] and I’m not condoning or justifying what she did… but rather, I’m asking the question, “Why was “Django” so popular if, by virtue of statistics, it should have been found 113 times as offensive as one person’s lapse of good manners?” Where’s the justification for that kind of popularity? If this racial slur is as offensive as everyone at politically-correct dinner parties and media newsrooms seems to think, how could a movie like this even get greenlighted, let alone make it to the Academy Awards?
There are a lot of people out there still talking about race relations, but I’d be really interested to hear what Morgan Freeman thought about this. He’s the one who pointed out that we’ll never get past the issue of race until we stop talking about it, and movies like “Django” seem – in my simple opinion – to be a force counter to progress toward greater humanity. That means that if a word is unquestionably offensive, everyone ought to stop using it. White folk shouldn’t use it. Black folk shouldn’t use it (claiming that they’ve pre-empted it, and made it “theirs”). Filmmakers and authors shouldn’t use it. If people keep using an offensive word and sometimes it’s OK and sometimes it’s not, then there are some serious questions to be asked.
I have no real answers, but the matter – in the words of Khan – “tasks me”… and I felt moved to put the questions out there.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
[1] I’m aware that her problems are a bit more complex than the one incident in question, but for the sake of simplicity I won’t elaborate on that here, as the other issues don’t really bear on the root problem.
What a difference one letter makes!
Just thought I’d share one of my favorite websites: Lost Consonants by Graham Rawle.
An example
Maybe it’s just linguist humor, but I think these are a crackup… this one especially makes me laugh every time I see it.
The Old Wolf has Poken.
Second Life
Found at Shorpy
April 1943. Baltimore, Md. “Trolley of 1917 vintage. Many old cars have been reconditioned because of wartime transportation pressure.” Medium format negative by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information.
A tax on people who are bad at math
Most of us dream of it. The big win.
“Next summer I’ll make the strike, and this time I’ll put it into something safe for the rest of my life, and stop this fool wandering around.” [1]
The above map shows the states (in blue) which have state-sponsored lotteries. When the jackpot rises to the hundreds of millions of dollars, people flock to the convenience stores and plunk down a few dollars for the chance at a big one. But the probability of winning is so vanishingly small that players are simply flushing their money down the toilet for a brief, titillating dream.
The infographic below is large, but rather enlightening, as it makes your chances rather visible in terms of scale.
In Arabic, the appropriate expression is “بكرة في المشمش” (bokra fil mishmish, or “tomorrow, when the apricots bloom.”) That’s the equivalent of “How about never. Is never good for you?”
Proponents of lotteries push the idea that it’s cheap entertainment, cheaper than going to a movie or bowling or to a dance or concert. But I’m put in mind of Isiah 29:8:
“It shall even be as when an hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth; but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh; but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul hath appetite.”
It is cheap entertainment… cheap as in the sense of little worth. When I was a kid in the 50’s, “made in Japan” was the equivalent of cheap slum, garbage, worthless trash – nowadays “made in China” seems to have taken over that shame (although we consume millions of tons of it from Wal-Mart and other places.)
Oh, make no mistake… I’ve been tempted. I live in one of the six states which has no lottery, and a couple of times I’ve been sorely tried… a little drive would take me over the border where I could plunk down my quatloos like the rest of humanity. But thankfully, I’ve prevailed, simply by reminding myself of the odds, and realizing that most of my money would be going to subsidize expenses for a state other than my own.
Despite the odds, millions play – and many others drop cash for worthless “systems” like the one shown here:
Yes, I’d love to be a multi-millionaire… but like WOPR said at the end of “War Games”, it’s a strange game… the only winning move is not to play.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
[1] Van Tilburg Clark, Walter, “The Wind and the Snow of Winter”
The Sydney Opera House… up close and personal.
In January of 2010 I was privileged to make a pilgrimage to Australia. I spent a week in the breathtaking Wollumbin crater – indescribable, raw beauty – and another two weeks puttering around New South Wales and Queensland. I’ve posted about the Dish, the Solar System Drive, and the Warrumbungle – but here are a few photos from Sydney which I found of interest.
The Sydney Opera House as you always see it in the brochures.
Opera Theater Entrance
View of the city from between arches.
Side view
Entry to the back promenade, off limits to all but seagulls and window-washers…
Tilework
Closeup of the tiles
Opera House Bar
Go ahead, try to tell me Vedek Winn wasn’t an Aussie…
Seriously, though – It’s an amazing complex. If I had as much money as Bill Gates, I might just be able to afford a show there.
The Old Wolf has spoken.
How naïve we were…
Found at Reddit, this cartoon by Delize was making the rounds some time ago:
If only we had known. (Click image for full resolution)
The Old Wolf has spoken… and the NSA is listening.
Playing in the World Game 