My adventures on Wikipedia

>Kannazuki no Miko

>Manga

>Japan

>Japanese yen

>Bretton Woods System

>Monetary policy

>Federal Reserve System

>Nelson Aldrich

>Ambrose Burnside

>Battle of Fredericksburg

>Confederate States of America

>List of historical unrecognized states

>Anglo-Corsican Kingdom

>Corsica

>Italian language

>Italian American

>Irish American

>Joe Biden

>United States Senate special election in Delaware, 2010

>Christine O’Donnell

The Law takes cyborg bear heroes very seriously.

This is a disclaimer to BEARsen, a kids' cartoon about a Swedish cyborg bear superhero that my friend Vita and I have long been trying to make happen.

BEARsen is a work of fiction. Some characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is not only not coincidental, but probably intended to be insulting as well. The creators of BEARsen abide by two natural laws—the law of awesome and the law of comedy. Any use of other scientific laws, including but not limited to the mass-energy relation, dominated convergence theorem, Euler-Maclaurin formula, Knuth up-arrow notation, Hempel’s raven, Drake equation, Maxwell diagrams, rank-nullity theorem, central dogma, Westermarck effect, maternal effect dominant embryonic arrest, modern evolutionary synthesis, Curry’s paradox, the Witch of Agnesi, the golden ratio, the law of equivalent exchange, Boyle’s law, Hoyle’s rules, Robert’s rules, house rules, rule of law, and punctuated equilibrium, serves only to enhance the awesomeness or funniness of the events in BEARsen and should not be construed as an endorsement of scientific education as a path to Epic Win. BEARsen is not affiliated with any church, synagogue, mosque, temple, shrine, shul, cathedral, basilica, monastery, abbey, nunnery, gurdwara, madrassa, stupa, hermitage, priory, friary, pagoda, convent, meetinghouse, jinja, or longhouse, except for the First Church of the Blessed St Bob of Hackensack in Mombassa, Kenya. Side effects of watching too much BEARsen may include headache, nausea, vomiting, death, dizziness, stomach pain, acid reflux, cardiac arrhythmia, mild heart explosions, headache, varicose veins, darkened stool, darkened soul, lycanthropy, trucanthropy, arteriosclerosis, haemorrhoids, spontaneous loss of virginity, mild discomfort, vampirism, susto, gender impermanence, sugar high, more vomiting, 401 errors, fallen armpits, Zod’s Disease, spontaneous combustion, flaming ninjas, fair use doctrine, Dogma 95, inverted cranium, electric guitars, por speling, colon cancer, apocalyptic prophecies, apoplectic prophecies, Tony Danza, speaking in a badly done German accent, a desire to dance the Virginia Reel, explosive diarrhoea, implosive diarrhoea, a desire to add increasingly more ridiculous symptoms to a list, St Robert Bellarmine, Shark Attack 3: Megalodon, headache, warts, flatulence, demonic possession, wandering skin, cranial inversion, fin rot, Dakka, seasonal allergies, null pointer exceptions, sleep crime, listening to non-stop Japanese electronica, need to shout the word ‘BEAR’ when it comes up in conversation, thinking that you’re good at Guitar Hero to impress others, More Dakka, headache, stomach-ache, nosebleed, horniness, hysteria siberiana, desire to have sex with Ingmar Bergman, exploding uvula syndrome, a desire to take over the world using eight reprogrammed robot masters, spontaneous regaining of virginity, the ‘dancing sushi’, flying ball rot, scarlet devil compaction, abscessed animus, atheism, theism, headache, erectile dysfunction, projectile dysfunction, volatile malted milk impoundments, infections of the crescent of Gianuzzi, isles of Langerhans, crypts of Lieberkühn, canal of Gugier, circle of Willis, area of Cohnheim, pyramids of Malpighi, antrum of Highmore, spaces of Fontana, cistern of Pecquet, angle of Ludwig, Scarpa’s triangle, Gower’s tract, Goll’s column, pouch of Douglas, convolutions of Broca, and jelly of Wharton, sudden infertility, sudden fecundity, Tanizaki Yukari-sensei, need to shout the word ‘BEAR’ when it doesn’t come up in conversation, headache, convulsions, flying ball rot, artificial insemination, temporary insanity, permanent insanity, hilariously ill-plotted shōjo, bone-crunching zombie carnage, Godless liberals, Johannes Scotus Eriugena, and mild rash. The creators are not responsible for any loss of life, limb, face, friends, enemies, infrastructure, faith in the human race, ammunition, political goodwill, or the God of Diodorus Siculus that watching BEARsen may cause you to incur.

 

So yeah.

Dear God, I haven't posted anything to this blog in three weeks.

Oh, well. Have some SHEENmazu YoSHEENo to make up for it.

 

 

Like Heidegger...but RIGHT!!!

I DISCOVERED HANS-GEORG GADAMER

SDLFLSDJKFJSFLJSLKF

MY FAITH IN PHILOSOPHY IS RENEWED FOR AT LEAST A LITTLE WHILE LONGER.

...THIS IS SERIOUSLY MAJOR FOR ME GUYS.

I will beat Bobby Flay like a MAN.

Watch this.




Notice that it doesn't specify how one is to beat Bobby Flay, just that one is to beat him.

And since he describes making an omelet as a 'flambee', it's clear that he himself has a very fast-and-loose relationship with English semantics.

Therefore, I propose to beat Bobby Flay with pistols at dawn.

Thoughts?

In conclusion, I mock because I love.

Kara no Kyoukai: Satsujin Kousatsu

A potential interpretation

By Nathan Turowsky

Shiki: I represent the horror genre. While I have an incredibly fucked-up, dark, twisted, hurting heart, I make the conscious choice to contain it and seek a better life.

Mikiya: I represent fans of the horror genre. While the things that I love about Shiki are her best traits, my willingness to tolerate the darkness within her and help her bear her sins makes society regard me as an enabler or even somewhat ‘creepy’.

Touko: I represent Charles Williams, creator of the urban fantasy subgenre and author of Descent into Hell and The Place of the Lion. My interest in Shiki has somewhat ulterior motives but I genuinely do care about her, and although I jerk around with Mikiya sometimes I care about him too.

Shirazumi: I represent Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse. My goal in life is to reach Shiki’s sick, twisted, dying heart and make it conform to my own nihilistic and unpleasant ideas about what it is.

Azaka: I represent Nasu Kinoko, the author of Kara no Kyoukai. While I think that it is possible to redeem Shiki and even Shirazumi, and in fact get along reasonably well with both of them, my protective attitude towards Mikiya makes me extremely suspicious of them most of the time.

Shiki: I should also mention that I am voiced by Maaya Sakamoto. You will worship me. Build a shrine to me now, geek boy.

Mikiya: Yes, my mistress.

Also, Rage Yun.

Why yes, I AM blogging mainly for the benefit of Simoun fans these past couple of days, thank you for noticing.

Introducing COURAGE MAMIINA.

Unlike other Simoun-themed advisors such as Inner Strength Aaeru or Romance Floe, who may lead you astray, Courage Mamiina WILL show you the way to greatness.

The Vermont national character

I am from Vermont. Vermont is not a place that many people are from and most people have some pretty strange conceptions about what it is like. So in this essay I shall explain the national character of Vermont. I say ‘national’ because, while I am very proud of my state, like so much of New England, Vermont barely counts as America any more (I view this as a good thing in some ways).

            Most Vermonters are hippies. But we aren’t your typical hippies. No, we’re the sorts of hippies who climb mountains, stand on the summit in a snowstorm, and let out the great, half-deranged Vermont ‘YEEEEEAAAAARRRRRGH!!!!!’ as if to say ‘we’re here, we’re Vermonters, come and get us.’ This is why we were the first state to legalise civil unions for gays, why we fought just as hard against New York and New Hampshire as we did against Britain, and why we retained our independence until 1791 as the Vermont Republic. Our governor during this time was Thomas Chittenden, who only had one working eye because of an incident with a catamount.

            This seeming paradox is due to Vermont’s history. For most of our history we were peopled by proud and hardy mountaineers and farmers—first Algonquin and Abenaki Indians, then the French, then settlers from Connecticut. Then in the 1960s Vermont started to attract hippies because of the forests and mountains (the state’s name comes from the French for ‘green mountain’). In true New England fashion, instead of clashing, these groups merged. Hence proud and hardy hippies who don’t take shit from anybody.

Simoun drinking game

Take a shot:

• Every time specific reference to sex change is made.
• Every time you want to slap a religious official.
• Every time you want to slap a secular official (warning: in the later stages of the show, this may result in alcohol poisoning).
• Every time you find yourself getting emotionally invested in a character who hasn’t had much screen time until now.
• Every time an Argentine or Plumbish character speaks in their native language (Japanese played backwards).
• Every time a new dodgy translation of an honorific comes up.
• Every time Aaeru does something insensitive.
• Every time Simoun makes you cry or feel feelings associated with crying.
• Every time we see a Ri Maajon that hasn’t been seen before.
• Every time a straight couple appears onscreen, drink the whole bottle (don’t worry; this only happens once).

How to Internet: A Beginner's Guide

How to Internet

1. First and foremost: don’t ever antagonise any of the chans.
2. Don’t assume that people care about you. If they do, great, but you can’t take it as a given online.
3. Liking anything Japanese makes you a 'weeaboo'; disliking anything Japanese makes you a racist. That’s just the way it works.
4. Finland has a disproportionately large online presence. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Those guys beat off the Commies and the Nazis.
5. Video games are fucking controversial. Except for Jack Thompson; ever since the ‘flowers for Jack’ fiasco, everybody hates him.
6. Familiarise yourself with chatspeak. Even if you don’t use it, other people will.
7. Familiarise yourself with lolcats. Chances are after you get past the initial bemusement you’ll find them hilarious too.
8. If you happen to like both Philip K. Dick and Robert A. Heinlein, beware. This is the Internet equivalent of standing between the trenches during the shelling.
9. Yes, there are people who honestly like Draco Malfoy. No, I don’t know either.
10. Actually, you’re best avoiding most of the Harry Potter fans. Really.
11. My Immortal, however, unites the entire Internet. Against it.
12. Even outside the chans, DO NOT. PISS OFF. ANONYMOUS.
13. Do mention Twilight, Inheritance, and/or The Sword of Truth. Bring popcorn.
14. Depending upon what yuri board you’re on, bringing up Kannazuki no Miko may make the Internet reach through your screen and slap you. The same goes for Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito.
15. Yoshinobu Nishizaki is always funny.
16. About Doctor Who fandom…avoid. Avoid. AVOID! But don’t avoid the show itself or there’ll be a lot of desultory references that you won’t get.
17. Mentioning Orson Scott Card can be good or bad, depending.
18. Do you like V for Vendetta? If not, I strongly suggest that you start to!

Disclaim for sarcasm

I note, with some consternation, that a recent online attempt of mine to explain—not even to argue for or against, simply to explain—St Anselm’s Ontological Argument was somehow disseminated to the point where it reached Richard Dawkins’s website, at which point it, along with other online assays of such kind, was mercilessly excoriated by Dawkins’s brood.

            Obviously being criticised by the followers of Professor Dawkins is a major setback for anybody interested in the philosophy of religion. As we all know, Professor Dawkins is a very well-regarded pillar of said branch of knowledge and to get on his bad side (or that of his fans) is to get on the bad side of the greatest philosopher of religion since, perhaps, Erasmus. In fact, to antagonise Professor Dawkins, wilfully or not, directly or not, is to be certain one of the greatest mistakes that a modern thinker of any sort can make.

            This has all been very trying for me. My beliefs have been shaken to their core. Due to the overwhelming insight engendered in Dawkins’s thought and that of his cohort, I am more than willing to re-examine and if need be abandon some of my most well-thought-out and clearly-articulated opinions. I am truly sorry for contributing to the vast religious conspiracy seeking to suppress Professor Dawkins and his thought, for as we all know he is as oppressed in the public at large as he is respected by serious philosophers.

            And it’s not just him! Poor Hitchens, poor Harris! For are not these pitiable Rudy Ruetiggers of modern thought the most oppressed of all? Surely they are as downtrodden as the great Christian and Jewish thinkers of former days! Surely no Buber, no St Cecilia or Tertullian, can match how they have suffered for their work, nor how great the work in question is. I wish them all speed in their work: may Hitchens succeed in his truly great endeavours! May Harris’s voice ring loud and clear in American life! May Dawkins’s next project truly do what it is meant to—for is not children’s ability to enjoy fantasy truly as pernicious and evil as paedophiliac rape? And may the great paladins, PZ Myers and Ian McEwan and Philip Pullman and their ilk, come to the constant aid and defence of these great, great, truly great and deep thinkers into the realities of the religious experience. May Myers’s reasonable approach, McEwan’s unique insights, and Pullman’s good grace triumph against the obscurantist drivel of the world’s Francis Collinses, Doris Lessings, and Leonard Cohens. May those who encourage unreason be mocked! May those who encourage fanaticism be killed!

May those who are against scientific supremacy be crushed beneath the wheels of the great Professor, who as we all know had so many better things to do over the past decade than teach his students about science. May he no more do useless things like studying his actual fields of expertise and expressing his outrage at various universities’ decisions to award honorary degrees to Ben Stein; of course these are less useful than promoting open contempt for one’s enemies in western Asia and trying to destroy the concept of fiction. May he entirely abandon his attempts at promoting evolution against intelligent design and focus entirely on religious philosophy, his true area of expertise!

            MEA CULPA.

            SALVA NOS, RICARDUS.

Why the hell am I even posting this? It's embarrassing that I spent so much time on something that can be very easily researched.

Although Christianity is the largest religion in the world, only about one out of three humans describes him- or herself as Christian. It thus follows that potentially two out of three or more are confused as to what it’s all about.

Key concepts

The Bible. The Christian holy text is called the Holy Bible. It is divided into the Old and New Testaments, which are further divided into between sixty-six and eighty Books, depending upon what branch of Christianity one is looking at. The Old Testament, also called the Hebrew Bible, is also a holy text of Judaism; the New Testament, also called the Christian or Grecian Bible, is unique to Christianity. For the first few centuries of Christian history the content of the Bible was in flux; since the fourth century, when Christianity became an official religion of the Roman Empire, the content of the New Testament has been a constant of twenty-nine Books and the content of the Old Testament has only varied slightly between denominations, with thirty-seven Books accepted by all as canonical. The Holy Bible was written from approximately 700 BCE to approximately 100 CE.

Theism. Theism, the belief in the existence of God, should need no explanation. It is the fundamental concept of Christianity, most strains of which subscribe to a form of pluriform monotheism. The doctrine of the Trinity states that God is three persons—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit-who-used-to-be-a-Ghost (subsequently I'll use the term 'Holy Ghost' because I like it better)—but one being. The expression of the doctrine used the Athanasian Creed (a Creed in use by the Catholic Church and widely accepted among liturgical Protestants) is:

Okay, fine, here's a poem.

A Prose Poem Written from the Perspective of the Grapes Being Squeezed by Jesus in Juan Correa’s Allegory of the Sacrament

I am aware that my only

Purpose here is to serve quietly

Allegorically as servant

Humbly for the sacrament

In agony, in blood, in tears

For the mystery of Eucharist

And with this I’m at peace.

Descent into Casting Hell: Worst Production Decisions Ever

So, having nearly finished Charles Williams's seminal novel Descent into Hell, I think it's time to sit back and take stock of what I've learned.

1. I've learned a new gauge for deciding what action to take with regards to the world at large: revolt, obey, compromise, or deceive.
2. I've learned about the Doctrine of Substituted Love, which makes more sense than most Atonement doctrines that people actually think out beforehand.
3. I've learned that homosexuals are capable of speech. No, seriously, at one point Peter Stanhope says 'Men can be in love with men, and women with women, and still be in love and make sounds and speeches.' It's metaphorical, and actually very progressive within that metaphor, but there you have it.
4. I've learned some of how a community theatre works, or at least how it worked seventy-five years ago.
5. I've learned that Lawrence Wentworth is really an incredibly unsympathetic and boring character.
6. Most of all, I've learned that the BEST CAST EVER (Trust Me On This) for a movie option to this story is (drumroll, please):

If you can survive here, you can survive anywhere.

            SITUATION ONE

            You’re in a cave, through which a river of lava runs. In the river is a flame-retardant crocodile. On the far side is an enraged grizzly. A narrow bridge connects the grizzly’s side of the lava with your own. A sniper is at the mouth of the cave. Due to convexion, the air in the chamber will scald you alive in ten minutes’ time. You are naked, but you have a flashlight, a half-litre bottle of Fresca, and a shotgun with two rounds but no powder. How do you escape from the cave?

Not to be taken especially seriously.

Oh, Szymon Wyrda. The post-Polish Idol years have not been kind to you.

Szymon Wyrda, for those poor benighted souls who have yet to bask in his unparalleled beauty, was a runner-up in Idol’s first season back in 2002. He is a vocalist and poet with some genuine talent and an ego approximately the same size that his country became after King Jadwiga married Grand Duke Jagiełło of Lithuania.

In a recent interview Mr Wyrda made very explicit his opinions on legal issues of copyright as they relate to a Web-dominated age. His views, perhaps a bit surprisingly given the well-documented tension that often exists between creators and publishers in matters of copy and patent, are intensely in favour of continued protectionism on the part of the industry. ‘Music piracy’, Wyrda said, ‘is more evil than killing people with a gun.’