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Making up artificial languages is like making up fantasy worlds to play RPGs in.

I've been playing a lot of boggle lately. I got boolean. It's fun to have Japanese school kids play boggle.
Tuesday, February 13, 2001

Brazil tells drug companies to fuck themselves
Big NYT summary of Brazil's program to produce generic cheap AIDS drugs.

also,

"No manufacturer depends on profits in Africa, which will account for 1.3 percent of worldwide drug sales next year, to motivate the search for new medicines."

Another NYT article:

"By June, the government will break the patents on the two AIDS drugs that are still legally protected if the industry does not lower prices"

The U.S. Embassy in Brazil released a statement on Friday saying the request "is in no way contrary to Brazilian policies to improve access to medicines..."

Indian company offers Free AIDS drugs

An Indian drug company has offered to sell an AIDS cocktail at a small fraction of the market price to an international aid agency to distribute to patients for free.

A spokesman for Boehringer Ingelheim in Berlin refused to say if the company would take legal action against Cipla but said "intellectual property rights should be protected" by any proposals to treat AIDS victims.

So lots more people die, and everybody's gotta go on worrying about sex all the time.

I think that AIDS has given a lot of power to republicans. Their whole anti-pleasure, anti-gay, anti-africa initiative seems justified.
Friday, February 9, 2001

Postal Experiments
What gets through the us postal system?

I'd like to see more about how often cash really gets stolen.
Thursday, December 14, 2000

Physical location of disgust centers in the brain
There is an area of the brain dedicated to identifying disgusting things:

when the patient was presented with a list of disgusting ideas - faeces-shaped chocolates, or people who didn't wash - he again showed no reaction.

Echelonwatch
The ACLU's page about Echelon.
Saturday, April 3, 1999

When I showed the Japanese middle schoolers drawings and asked them to describe them, they did fine saying things like

"the bird is on the bear",

but they also said things like

"the window is on the bed"
when really it was above it. I don't think Japanese distinguishes between 'on' and 'above'. They also laughed like crazy when I said things like

"The bear is under the bird"
"the table is under the watch."

It's true, those are ungrammatical even in english (although logically clear). I guess you have to state the position of the smaller in relation to the larger? But, you can say things like "The cloud is above me". So why is "I am under my hat" so strange?

Also,I want a short version of clockwise and counterclockwise. There's gotta be a language from which we can steal better words.

English also lacks a word for "diagonally across from". Some people say "caddy corner" or "kitty corner" but nobody understands them, and if you say "opposite" nobody knows whether you mean diagonal "or across from"

I'm sorry I'm boring.

When the wind is at your back, the low is on your left. (A formula for finding the center of a weather system.Northern Hemisphere only. Reverse for Southern Hemisphere) Because storms blow counterclockwise in the NH.

actually this pertains to the bathtub water spinning thing as well. People extrapolated wrongly that since storms spin this way, water must also...

Mnemonics & Standards righty-tighty, lefty-loosie
When did this start? I havn't managed to find out. It hasn't totally permeated Japan yet though, although it almost always worked in the US.

Oh, Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me Right Now Sweetheart
Oh Be A Fine Girl Kiss Me Right Now Smack
Only Bored Astronomers Find Gratification Knowing Mnemonics
Odd Ball Astronomers Find Generally Kooky Mnemonics Really Nifty Stuff
mnemonic for star classes on a stellar evolution diagram: (OBAFGKMRNS, but RNS are obsolete)

and a newer pc version:
Only Boys Advocating Feminism Get Kissed Meaningfully

Anthroplogy Can Make People Hate Helping The Sick
To remember the taxonomic classification for humans
Anamalia Chordata Mammalis Primate Hominidae Homo Sapien

How I need a drink, alcoholic of course,
after heavy chapters involving quantum mechanics

Friday, November 17, 2000

Whenever an Israeli is killed by a Palestinian, Israel regularly kills about 10 times as many Palestinians in retribution.

Hey all you Israelis and Palestinians: there's nothing special about Jerusalem! Sentimental value is bunk! Atoms are atoms!

Do you have a job & a family? Work your job, enjoy life. Just cut out the killing people part of your life. It's not doing you any good.

now, more stupid stuff.
Un fucking believable
Unbel fucking ievable
Unbeliev fucking able
Tuesday, November 7, 2000

bad analogies

The little boat gently drifted across the pond exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.
Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center
He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

If if if it rains it pours I get depressed I should get help

Everyone is familiar with two kinds of one-eyed one-horned flying purple people eaters eaters. Not everyone knows that there are actually five kinds in all. They are not all equally common or dangerous, but woe will certainly betide you if you encounter the first kind.

It sounds like George W. Bush should be asking the delegates, 'Is you is or is you ain’t a party that cares about grammar?' ... 'If compassionate conservatives don't know the meaning of 'is,' how will they handle the more important helping verbs?'

The Simpsons' house has been broken into on Christmas Eve, and all their Christmas presents and decorations have been stolen. Homer is relating his woes to Moe, the barman, and Moe sympathizes:
"You know what I blame this on the breakdown of? Society!"

Sally and Charley

Sally Salter, she was a young teacher who taught,
And her friend, Charley Church, was a preacher who praught;
Though his enemies called him a screecher who scraught.

His heart, when he saw her, kept sinking, and sunk;
And his eye, meeting hers, began winking, and wunk;
While she in her turn, fell to thinking, and thunk.

In secret he wanted to speak, and he spoke,
To seek with his lips what his heart long had soke,
So he managed to let the truth leak, and it loke.

The kiss he was dying to steal, then he stole;
At the feet where he wanted to kneel, then he knole;
And he said, "I feel better than ever I fole."

Q. What is a language?
A. A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.
Attributed to Max Weinreich.

A father is climbing the stairs to his child's room, carrying a book.
Daddy, what did you bring that book I don't want to be read to out of up for?"

Bart is standing in front of a Smokey the Bear statue, who has an electronic voice and a little quiz to administer. Bart and Smokey have the following exchange.
Smokey: (electronic intonation) Who is the only one who can stop forest fires?
Bart: (examines response panel, which has two buttons, marked "you" and "me", and presses "you")
Smokey: (electronic intonation) "You pressed YOU, meaning me. This is incorrect. You should have pressed ME, meaning you."