Embedding disabled by request: The Fake Scandal of the Copyright

This is wonderful. Even more so since the fake scandal over the "accidental" release of Lily Allen's cover of Britney Spear's "Womanizer", available here: Embedding disabled by request (or not). I do think, however, it is perhaps noteworthy that the original "accidental" copyright-infringingly released version is less produced and thus better. What's the word? It's almost sincere.



How crass and disingenuous.

"Quick! Dilute it again!" "That's strong stuff."

Best. Mr. Deity. Ever.

I love how P Zed Myers gets credited as PZ "Zed" Myers. You know this O Constant ListenerZ, I called him that FIRST! Listen to the back episodes.

The final joke (with the banana) is an allusion to The Atheist's Nightmare "unintentional creationist humour" of Kirk Cameron and the Way of the Master.

Cthulhu on High

Dr. P Zed Myers and Joe.My.God. have both been following the ridiculous mess that is the painting of Jesus delivering the US Constitution. I'm not going to give you the link because I really don't want to have to find it again. It is widely available. Sadly. Instead I'll give you my favourite of the parodies featuring Cthulhu. (Dr. Myers and I both love squidy goodness).

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn... Not anymore. It seems he's up and about. And much shorter than I imagined.



In offer this image in the true spirit of l'Action de Grâce or [Canadian] Thanksgiving.

"Transparency: The Rise of Atheism in America"

Okay there are a heap of issues with the interpretation of the very raw unqualified data, but I like the info graphic and the the atheist as the buxom bartender is actually kinda witty. At least the image is pretty?

(Brought to my attention by the amazing Pharyngula master himself, P Zed Myers. But from here originally.)

Dan Choi should run for something as he is technically unemployed.

A great speaker, a smart man, multilingual, charming, articulate, natural leader and fired for being a gay homosexual, on the tail end of [now Multi-] National Coming Out Day we at Heresy Qubec want to salute a neighbour to the south, Dan Choi. This is a great speech given at the address to the 250,000+ at the LGBT National Equality March in Washington, DC (this afternoon, the 11th of October, 2009). 안녕하십니까? 최 선생님. (Annyonghashimnikka? Choi Sonsaengnim.)

Bitchy Androids, Bitchier Actors who play them

Continuing with source citations from "Episode 8: Linguaphiles attend," here is one of the contextual quotes that lead to a discussion of a certain bitchy gold robot as portrayed by an apparently equally bitchy actor. (The source is here.)

In a recent interview with Kenny Baker (R2-D2)

INTERVIEWER: Did you get on with fellow robot actor Anthony Daniels?

KENNY BAKER: Not really. I thought it was just me he didn't get on with but recently I've found out he doesn't get on with anyone. He's been such an awkward person over the years. If he just calmed down and socialised with everyone, we could make a fortune touring and making personal appearances. I've asked him four times now but, the last tiime, he looked down his nose at me like I was a piece of *beep* He said: 'I don't do many of these conventions - go away little man.' He really degraded me and made me feel small - for want of a better expression. He's rude to everyone though, including the fans.

*Gasp*:(

Has C3PO turned to the dark side?

I also mentioned, as Quote of the Week, the nastier Daniels comment that appeared on Wikipedia and mentioned that it had further been extracted therefrom. I'm too lazy to crawl through the innards of the talk page. But the expurgated version is here.

Okay, I'm a little too obsessive. The edit is after the Revision as of 19:51, 16 September 2009

Arising from Episode 8: Linguaphiles attend

How awesome are these images? Really, The Scream? The Doom Spikes are an instant fail because I love them and totally would want to visit.

(From the article here. A more detailed look at the subject is here complete with more amazing images and thoughtful passages many of which I read on the Podcast.)

DO NOT READ Dan Brown

From the Telegraph comes a list of 20 very compelling reasons not to read the work of Dan Brown. He will not be reviewed on Heresy Québec. Ever.

Jumping to the good stuff. Well not really. The #1 and my personal favourite:

1. The Da Vinci Code: Title. The Da Vinci Code.

Leonardo’s surname was not Da Vinci. He was from Vinci, or of Vinci. As many critics have pointed out, calling it The Da Vinci Code is like saying Mr Of Arabia or asking What Would Of Nazareth Do?

Go here and read the rest of the list.

Distrubilicious: Amazing how much they look like fat cells.

Strangely Compelling: Carl Sagan - 'A Glorious Dawn' ft Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remixed)

The Heresy Québec Review of the Marilyn Manson concert in Ottawa

For context read Lynn Saxberg's review in the Ottawa Citizen of Marilyn Manson's September 21st concert (here!) also the Calgary Herald review (here!), by Heath McCoy, of the September 11th show which is noteworthy because moral panic arose during the last time Manson performed in YYC.

I think Lynn Saxberg is a bit harsher than I was in my evaluation. Perhaps it is because I actually enjoy Manson's work and "art" (if you will). To a point. The concert opened late, but solidly with "We're from America",... and then spiralled into one of the most poorly orchestrated spectacles I have had the misfortune to attend. My beloved sister had described the Edmonton show to me and had lead me to hope that it might improve. I was really looking forward to his encore of Patti Smith's "Rock N Roll Nigger" a standard in his recent tours. (I love how McCoy can't even properly use the word "nigger" and has to instead write "n**ger" cuz changing the name of the song and replacing letters just makes all those years of slavery and oppression just melt away.) There was no encore. It seems as though the entire tour was lurching into the banal space of post-rock mediocrity and more importantly, from my myopic perspective, that the Ottawa show was the worst of the lot.

Upon exiting the Scotia Bank Überdome (or whatever the fuck it is called) I was struck by the fanboys and their overheard wankery: "That was so awesome!" And the perhaps more adulterated, "Well, at least he came to Ottawa." To the drooling first dyad I wanted ask, "Were we at the same concert?" I chose not to on the grounds that they were likely 13 and had no basis for comparison. I was reminded of the line from the Dayglo Abortion's "Black Sabbath", "he'd probably love me if I pissed on his face..." (Although the fan wankery is reversed there, the principle applies.)

I think even the over abundance of police were bored. Clearly their time was wasted in preparation for the rioting that just doesn't ever seem to happen moral panics be damned.

Mr. The Engineer made an excellent (and telling) observation: Tori Amos' performance was actually more transgressive. Perhaps that is the most salient point here. When a balladeer is more transgressive and much better an entertainer over all then perhaps the shock-rocker needs to fade back into obscurity and count the money received from residuals.

W o t W: Twee (p, s)

The word for this week, this week a long fucking time ago, was

TWEE

But somehow in my editing tonight (January 15th, 2010, 04h35!) I deleted the fucker and am too tired to rewrite it. For now.

This serves as it's placeholder. Hopefully I'll remember and fix it. I'm mildly OC so prolly I will.

[Insert negative comment disparaging the Monster that is Hello Kitty here.]

An essay on Bisexuality, as presented by the Best of Craigslist

Lesbians like sushi and bisexuals like hot dogs and sushi. Lesbians would never be interested in eating hot dogs. A lesbian can eat sushi all day every day and never consider hot dogs. In fact, lesbians can never eat too much sushi. A bisexual can go without sushi, then really miss the feel and taste of sushi, because there is nothing like sushi. Then they go out and get some sushi. They swear they can go without hot dogs, because sushi is so much better. They start to eat sushi all day every day. The lesbian continues to do the same.

Then one day the sushi is a little stale and the bisexual remembers how hot dogs are different. She didn't have that problem with hot dogs, at least not that she can remember. Eating hot dogs was easier and less complicated. The lesbian does not start to crave a hot dog when this happens. The lesbian knows she only likes sushi, so even though it got stale, she is still focused only on the sushi. She wants the sushi to get better, because she knows really great sushi is hard to find. The bisexual won't try as hard to figure out why the sushi got stale. Sooner or later she will do what is easier. She will go out for a hot dog. There are hot dogs on every corner and she knows she'll have a few to choose from soon enough. Perhaps she will just have hot dogs for a long time or will try some hot dog rolls or sushi dogs. This is why I prefer lesbians. The only problem is that they may go out for some completely different sushi, thinking that the new sushi will be different. But at least they are aren't out eating hot dogs.

I love how it ends with:

• it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

(Source.)

Can anyone really be surprised?

Blackwater = Bad; it's founder is a Christianist murderer.

SRSLY. Can anyone really be surprised when a neo-con stalwart starts a mercenary company and then together they do reprehensible things? Now let's be clear here: you can't exactly "go rogue" when you are fucking mercenaries. It is what it says on the tin. The question here is how neo-cons who thought that professional soldiering was not sufficient and decided that hiring mercenaries answerable only to their employers would be a good idea. And: How are they going to spin it to the public? They really didn't. I never really got the impression that outside of Iraq and reactionary liberal blogs like this one, there was much awareness of a) what Blackwater was b) who it consisted of c) what they did and d) Oh By The Way, mercenaries. (Wherein mercenary is perhaps not harsh enough.)

Here's a nice solid from Salon discussing the Blackwater founder, Erik Prince from sworn statements:

Erik Prince, may have murdered or facilitated the murder of individuals who were cooperating with federal authorities investigating the company. The former employee also alleges that Prince "views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe," and that Prince's companies "encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life."

Fuck Prince. What a disgraceful human being. But who knows, it has yet to be proven. However, again let's be clear here, he is the founder and owner of a MERCENARY COMPANY. What is the business of mercs? It is to murderize and business is good. Apparently. As a heretic, I am, however, even more disturbed by the crusading bits. What to tart up your sociopathy Mr. Prince.

My original source seems to have disappeared. But it was here. Fortunately there are others. And having multiple sources on any topic is always important and academically sound. See also here. But I guess I have a little bit of a pause because saying bad things about what mercs do is almost like saying nothing at all. Thuggery and murder is where they live; all part of the job.

However, the charges are specific (link to the declarations made by John Doe 1 and John Doe 2) and more disturbing than the standard merc horribleness. Hopefully Blackwater and Mr. Prince will be examined thoroughly by the legal process, although I am sceptical. It seems now at least that something is being done about US Federally funded thuggery. Disturbing(er?) charges have been raised; if they are truly actionable I hope the fuckers get prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But I'm exceedingly dubious that will ever happen. Here's hoping also that Messrs. Doe and Doe don't magically disappear and/or "meet with accidents."

W o t W: Milkomeda (S)

The Word of the Week is:

"Milkomeda", as coined by TJ Cox and Abraham Loeb.

It is (of course it is!) a delicious portmanteau of Milky Way (our home galaxy here on Heresy) and the Andromeda galaxy which is rapidly careening into us at breakneck spead. Eventually Andromeda will collide with the Milky Way and after some settling period, some casual dating on the galactic scene, they will merge into one ugly ass merged galaxy, hence "Milkomeda." As Phil Plait the brilliant Bad Astronomer says: "I suppose Andromeway sounded too much like the name of some sort pf pharmaceutical." I think it would sound more like a less harsh version of mace by which members of the male gender can be repelled ("Andro-away", no?).

Thank-you.

W o t W: Grue (S,P)

The Word of the Week is:

"Grue" a linguistic term used to replace colour words in languages that do not distinguish between green and blue.

See for reference the discussion of colour in linguistics. A good survey is here at the Font of all Wisdom and Knowledge.

This entry gets a nod for semantic (it is a purely semantic construct; not really even a proper word) and the phonetic. And it is a portmanteau. O how we love the portmanteaus!

Thank-you.