Monthly Archives: July 2012

Sensible Jim Sensenbrenner

This is a town-hall meeting with Jim Sensenbrenner’s constintuents, at which one of the voters from Wisconsin’s 5th district goes to bat for Michele Bachmann. He doesn’t exactly Barny Frank her, but he’s firm and reasonable and, interestingly, strongly supports a secular government.

He totally out-tea-partied the lady who co-founded the Tea Party.

Hat tip: Steve Benen, at TMB

Two items of possible interest

Just to let you know, I’ve got a couple of new posts up in the “weblogue” series on The X Blog:

My career in music: The Early Years

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blockquote>We put a chair there, and we would take turns sitting in the chair and listening to the sound effects record.

A train coming from one side to another. A pin dropping on one side then the other. A voice coming right from the middle even though there was not a speaker right there. The voice was saying “Hey, there’s no speaker right here, but you hear my voice like there is a speaker there. Isn’t stereo amazing!”</em

>

and

OK, I didn’t really have a career in music

The big fear among high school administrators was that the band members would wander around among the students snorting coke and shooting up heroin during the breaks.

Strangest AGW Denialist Story So Far This Year?

In 2008, John O’Sullivan wrote a novel called “Vanilla Girl,” which is actually a big giant blog post on blogger.com, about “A teacher’s struggle to control his erotic obsession with a schoolgirl.”

Blogger "About" Page of John O'Sullivan, "Vanilla Girl" author and climate change denialist. O'Sullivan was acquitted of sex related charges with exculpatory testimony supplied by his 17 year old step-daughter.

A few years earlier, it appears, the same John O’Sullivan, who was a teacher, was cleared of charges that he had sent 36 “sex txts” to a 16 year old girl within a three week period, some soliciting sex for money, using an Internet account under the name “Sexy Hunk.” Continue reading Strangest AGW Denialist Story So Far This Year?

OK, I didn’t really have a career in music

[D]uring my personal musical eclipse, after the novelty of the stereo and before I ever met Carl, my brother had a band. This was eventually to become a sort of secret band. He and at least some of the other band members had regular jobs, like working for the state, etc., and I’m not sure whether everybody they worked with knew that on weekends they would go home, dress in shiny white lamé suits, and play rock and roll at one or two high schools.

I remember the early days, when they were just learning to play together and they’d practice in my house, piping their guitars through that old stereo. They would listen to popular songs and try to figure out which notes were which so they could play them. (Apparently, sheet music was invented some time later.) I remember them learning to play “Wipe Out” by the Ventures (originally recorded by The Sufaris). As a little kid, I heard them play it over and over again so many times that I learned it. I can still play it on a guitar. Continue reading OK, I didn’t really have a career in music

Sally Ride has died

Dr. Sally Ride is reported to have died today after a long battle with cancer. She was 61. Ride was the first American woman to go into outer space, and the youngest at the time, at age 32. She was also a pioneer in STEM promotion, and a prolific author.

The origin and meaning of the word "boob"

The question came up: If referring to a person as a word for a female body part in an insulting manner is sexist, then isn’t calling a man a “boob” sexist?

(I may or may not have referred to some guy as a boob.)

My first reaction was to simply say, “No, because a boob, in this sense has nothing to do with female body parts. It is a dunce, idiot, stupid or bumbling person, etc.” However, often, when we make assumptions about the origin of a word we are wrong. And since part of that conversation was about whether using the word “hysterical” was sexist, even if one did not know the origin of the term, I thought I’d better look it (boob) up. So I did. Turns out, I was right. “Boob” is just what I say above. So now you know.

But in the process of looking it up I came across another tidbit which is much more obscure, probably wrong, and won’t be of much interest to most people but it was of interest to me so I’ll mention it. It is probably true (as I had assumed) that “boob” comes from “booby”, and here’s the description from Dictionary.com of the origin of “booby”:

1590–1600; earlier pooby, apparently blend of poop to befool (now obsolete) and baby; ( def. 2 ) perhaps by association with Spanish bobo < Latin balbus stuttering.

And what is interesting about this is that even though the Spanish “bobo” may derive from the Latin “balbus” it is also true that in parts of Central Africa, the word “bobo” means someone who does not speak at all, does not speak properly, speaks foolishly, or who does not speak the prevailing languages. There are, of course, Portuguese words spoken in the same region because of the Portuguese influence on KiSwahili which then became an overarching trade language and, in turn, influenced other languages. So the language from which I know “bobo” is KiNande, but it could also be KiNguana, a western dialect of KiSwahili

The on line Living KiSwahili Dictionary has “bobo” as referring to two distinct nuts. I can verify the use of “bobo” to refer to one of these nuts on Google Translator. I’m not much impressed by that because once you get outside of Tanzania, animal and plant names in KiSwahili are probably often local non-KiSwahili names absorbed by the language. (The KiNande dictionary does not list the word at all.)

Finally, I looked “bobo” up in Portuguese … in that language, “bobo” means fool. Perfect. The term is shared by Spanish and Portuguese, and apparently, at least one obscure Central African language which has other Portuguese words in it from colonial times.

So, when someone calls you a boob, they are expressing a sentiment that has been expressed around the world in many languages, although not necessarily about you in particular. The origin of the word is probably still Latin, spread via Portuguese colonization in East Africa into that region where perhaps it resides here and there atop the other local languages, but not necessarily in KiSwahili or any of its many variants. We need to send linguists to check KiNande (aka Konzu) for more Portuguese.

Meanwhile, is there any chance at all that “boob” as in “fool” comes from “boob” as in “breast”? I think not, but in case you are still giving that any consideration let me remind you of an important linguistic rule. Everything is a word for female breasts; at one time or another, any given word may or may not be used as slang to refer to breasts. I’m not sure why that is the case, but it seems to be.

My career in music: The Early Years

[I] am the least musical person I’ve ever met who is still alive. Of course, most nonmusical people don’t go around talking about it, so I probably actually know more tone deaf, talentless people than that. It is strange, though. I should be musical. My mother sang semiprofessionally, doing radio in the pre-WWII days before they had things on tape, like commercials which were sent by telegraph to various radio stations then read and/or sung live in the studio. My oldest sister is known as Lightning Fingers Liz, owing to her prowess with the mandolin. My brother had a rock band from something like 1968 through 1990-something and is quite talented with the lead guitar. My other sister takes the cake, though. She has a couple of PhD’s in music or related topics, is an accomplished composer, and has learned—to at least a reasonable level of competence—one instrument in each known and extant class of musical instrument. (This required her to learn the bagpipes and the didgeridoo, because they are almost exclusive in their own classes.)

Continue reading My career in music: The Early Years

How to share files with other people easily

Dropbox is still the best way for most users to store their files on multiple computers and in “the cloud” in part because it is system agnostic and not linked to a corporate entity that has other plans for you. And, using Dropbox you can share files pretty easily as well. However, there is another way to share files that is amazingly cool that I just found out about. It’s called “Drop Canvas.” With Drop Canvas you drag and drop files onto a “canvas” (it’s a web page) and then send the canvas to someone.

I’ve implemented a test already. A couple of other people and I are planning to make something for someone that involves images. So, I threw a bunch of possible images to use on a drop canvas and sent it around. Others can add additional images. I’m pretty sure others (to whom you’ve sent it) can delete files off the canvass (well, at least, I’ve just deleted a file off a canvass I sent to myself). So this could be an interesting collaborative tool.

Drop Canvas in action (screenshot)

Hat tip Yaara Lancet who also suggests other file sharing options.

What are the chances that Christ and Anti-Christ would end up living next door to each other?

Jesus H. Christ
[A]pparently, not as small as you might think. In Palm Bay Florida, Jesus is under arrest for stalking his neighbor, Anti-Christ, as well as shooting at him with a bb-gun.

I love the way the reporters keep referring to him as “Jesus Man.” I wonder if that’s how the Roman officials referred to him in 0-whatevery AD.

“Pilot. The Jesus Man is stirring up trouble again in the Galilee.”

“We’re gonna have to nail that Jesus Man to a cross, man.”

That sort of thing.

Anyway, here’s the video:

Jeesh.

A small % of people believe in bigfoot and UFO’s. Michele Bachmann.

Michele Bachmann
[I] don’t know what causes people to either create beliefs about something that is not true, or to accept incredible beliefs of this sort. I do know that I’ve had such beliefs. When I was 12. At the time that I was 12 and a couple of years before that, I believed that theories like “Worlds in Collision” were interesting and possibly valid. I had mixed feelings about Ancient Astronauts. For at time I felt that Edgar Cayce explained everything. But then, I turned 13 and literally grew out of it. Well, there were other influences. And for some of those beliefs it took another year to completely go away. I’m pretty sure my old-world style Catholic upbringing prepared me to believe things that I now see as incredibly unlikely. If one grows up knowing that demonic possession, poltergeists, assumption, and coming back from the dead are well known phenomena, then an as yet undiscovered hominid living in the forest, or alternative theories of how the solar system evolved are not so hard to accept. But one grows out of these things. Continue reading A small % of people believe in bigfoot and UFO’s. Michele Bachmann.

The Subtext is a Sandwich

I like to go into Subway and order a BLT.

“What would you like, sir?”

“A BLT on Italian.”

“Would you like bacon on that, sir?”

“Yes. This is a BLT.”

“What kind of cheese?”

“No cheese. Just a BLT.”

“Toasted?” (Read: “Cooked?”)

“Ah…yes, actually, that would be good.”

Wait for a minute while the BLT is “toasting” in the preternatural rapid Subway oven.

“Lettuce?”

“Yes. B-L-T.”

“Anything else on it?”

“Ah, yes. This is a BLT, so tomato would be good. BLT.”

“Anything else on it?”

“No, just mayo. That’s all.”

“Okay, anything else?”

“BLT.” Continue reading The Subtext is a Sandwich

Are you going to the Mr. Paul Aints game?

The minor league baseball game is on Friday, August 10th, and it is sponsored by the Minnesota Atheists. The local team, the Saint Paul Saints, will change their name to the Mr. Paul Aints for the occasion. If you are in the greater Twin Cities area please try to get to the game! I’m not sure if the discount Minnesota Atheists tickets are still available, but there will certainly be some seats still for sale somewhere in the stadium.

Now, you are probably already guessing that when an organised Atheist group gets together with a sports team to do something together, there will be…well, drama. And you’d be right if you guessed that. We of the Minnesota Atheists and their allies are taking it all in stride, of course, but there are some interesting conversations happening.

If you want more information about the game via links, and you want to explore the drama a bit, you can visit this post which includes a Letter to the Editor that I wrote that was actually printed.

See you at the game!

A new project on the X Blog

I’ve started a new, modest but I think good, project on The X Blog. I’ve dragged out and dusted off, and rewritten and reorganized, a selected series of essays that I wrote few years ago but were not widely read, especailly by you if you are fairly new to this blog. I’m going to be posting a few a week. The original corpus is about 40 or so essays in total but I’m combining some and it is quite possible that I’ll toss some aside as I get to them because I am trying to be selective.

Originally, these essays were written in batches, or as part of a theme, and there are several different batches or themes among them. But I realized the other day that they are also personal-historical and can be roughly ordered in relation to my own personal time line. (Hey, maybe I should post them as “events” on my Facebook page?!? Gotta use that time line thing for something!) So I’ve ordered them that way, which amuses me, though I’m sure it will mean little to anyone reading them.

I’d been planning on doing this for a while, but the impetus for doing it right now came from a conversation I had with a colleague. We are planning something that would require that we get hold of a blimp or Zeppelin or something. Some kind of airship. We’re working on that, and I’m sure you’ll hear about it if it happens. You see, the thing is, the first in this series of essays relates to blimps. And frightening nightmares and dead pets. An Nazis.

Please visit the X Blog and have a look at “Thump