Word just recently got out via DXLD Yahoo Group that Radio Nederland Wereldomroep's Dodi Cowan, formerly of the His & Hers show, passed away last December. As former Happy Station host Tom Meijer used to say-better late than never.
Nee Dorothy Kong, married Jerry Cowan and later divorced. Author under the pen name of Ruth Deborah Rey. And she is missed by many. She is survived by her daughter, Samantha Cohen and grandson Dylan Thurel.
This blog is now in mourning on this occasion.
Ramadan mubarak.
Wednesday mini-UPDATE: In other international radio news, July 2 is the 72nd birthday celebration of Radio Havana's Arnie Coro, Junkyard Genius Emeritus. When Arnie dies, Radio Havana's gonna collapse and fall into the sea, betcha.
Monday, June 30, 2014
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Balkanization of the music industry via Congress
I stopped being a Roseann Cash fan today. I'm also no longer a fan of Paul Williams either. As I listened to the CSPAN replay of the music licensing hearing Part Deux, I heard two people who overvalued the market value of their creations without regard to the role wide publication had in the size of their holdings. Now rewind to Pearl Jam. That was another case of extremes, where the publicist exerted ownership of content provided by the artists.
At the hearing, I heard both Cash and Williams whine about how publicists and broadcasters were profiting from their material. They never mentioned how they got their big bucks by being publicized by publicists and broadcasters. Cash went so far as demean publication as "the exposure argument". Fair market value of any product is determined by market distribution, idiots.
You can't go viral if you don't share.
I'm now hearing Darrel Issa reading Article I Section 8 paragraph 8, one that I've had to cite quite often in other contexts and is probably the only area in which me & Issa agree on.
"The Congress shall have the Power...To promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries..."
Emphasis: limited Times. But hold that thought for now.
The songwriters would be nowhere without the performers of their content, and the performers are the copyright holders of their own performances. Yeah, that ole Balkanization doesn't end there. Everybody involved in a given production is entitled to their piece, too, and what we now have is a collaborative production denying that the big money isn't in any single one of the components thereof.
I don't have a problem with people getting fair pay for the work they do, nor with the fact that the people who create are the owners of their creation until they sell off the rights to someone else, or die and leave it to progeny. I have a problem with the Terms and Conditions which require (think Creedence Clearwater Revival now) the artist relinquish rights to their creations AND to their own names (think Prince now) as a CONDITION of a publication contract. An entire "plantation industry" which is the recording industry was based on this violation of Article I Section I paragraph 8 because those who signed on to such contracts had no standing to make a Supreme Court-tracked legal challenge to such provisions.
The fair market value of a work is determined by the market it's in, and you don't get to market without publication, which includes broadcasting, terrestrial or otherwise. Two standards were mentioned of a fair market..."the 801B" and the "willing buyer/willing seller" standard, and nobody on the panel is happy with either, preferring to pick and choose from both.
SOLUTION: Read the friggin' Constitution and let the Supremes decide. They should have decided on the basis of Article I Section 8 paragraph 8 decades ago.
Performers, nobody has a higher value for your performance than your fans, and fans tell other people to get you more fans. You don't go viral if you don't share and suing your fans cuts your fan market value. Small market performers have fans just as big as the big performers, but because of limitations on publication, they just don't have as many big fans as the big performers. They still value the small market product as highly as the big fans of the big market product and that fact alone should bring your overestimation of your big market selves down several pegs to where it belongs.
The gentleman representing the NAB brought up an interesting point about giving independent air play to small groups not under contract to major labels, a person who characterized the complaints of songwriters to wanting to charge broadcasters for giving them free promotion...which is about right, IMHO. Giving equal free air publicity for bands NOT under contract is what plantation-style recording labels is exactly what the labels have a problem with, and by proxy, all the songwriters they "own" in their stables, as it lets a bunch of air out of their inflated market value they believe themselves to be.
Sorry, folks, but your estimation of your own value contains as much worthless hot air as your egos do. On that topic, Mr. Arlo Guthrie, in regard to your stinginess with your father's material, noting that your father was better with original words than with original music (case in point, "Union Maid", words to the tune of "Red Wing", which he did not write) We The People whose Land this is (your land, my land), are quite anxiously awaiting your death.
You can't go viral if you don't share. Just ask One Republic, whose music is now like just about everywhere these days. That's distribution that money just can't buy.
Hey radio people--you can stop looking for a post on ARRL Field Day here. I don't like Field Day or any other similar pile-up type contesting. Forget about it.
Sunday mini-UPDATE: Interesting post about a scientist-sculptor on Facebook today. It's actually what a map of the time realm would look like, if you can picture in your mind's eye the pattern that occurs inside the object as well...
At the hearing, I heard both Cash and Williams whine about how publicists and broadcasters were profiting from their material. They never mentioned how they got their big bucks by being publicized by publicists and broadcasters. Cash went so far as demean publication as "the exposure argument". Fair market value of any product is determined by market distribution, idiots.
You can't go viral if you don't share.
I'm now hearing Darrel Issa reading Article I Section 8 paragraph 8, one that I've had to cite quite often in other contexts and is probably the only area in which me & Issa agree on.
"The Congress shall have the Power...To promote the Progress of Science and Useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries..."
Emphasis: limited Times. But hold that thought for now.
The songwriters would be nowhere without the performers of their content, and the performers are the copyright holders of their own performances. Yeah, that ole Balkanization doesn't end there. Everybody involved in a given production is entitled to their piece, too, and what we now have is a collaborative production denying that the big money isn't in any single one of the components thereof.
I don't have a problem with people getting fair pay for the work they do, nor with the fact that the people who create are the owners of their creation until they sell off the rights to someone else, or die and leave it to progeny. I have a problem with the Terms and Conditions which require (think Creedence Clearwater Revival now) the artist relinquish rights to their creations AND to their own names (think Prince now) as a CONDITION of a publication contract. An entire "plantation industry" which is the recording industry was based on this violation of Article I Section I paragraph 8 because those who signed on to such contracts had no standing to make a Supreme Court-tracked legal challenge to such provisions.
The fair market value of a work is determined by the market it's in, and you don't get to market without publication, which includes broadcasting, terrestrial or otherwise. Two standards were mentioned of a fair market..."the 801B" and the "willing buyer/willing seller" standard, and nobody on the panel is happy with either, preferring to pick and choose from both.
SOLUTION: Read the friggin' Constitution and let the Supremes decide. They should have decided on the basis of Article I Section 8 paragraph 8 decades ago.
Performers, nobody has a higher value for your performance than your fans, and fans tell other people to get you more fans. You don't go viral if you don't share and suing your fans cuts your fan market value. Small market performers have fans just as big as the big performers, but because of limitations on publication, they just don't have as many big fans as the big performers. They still value the small market product as highly as the big fans of the big market product and that fact alone should bring your overestimation of your big market selves down several pegs to where it belongs.
The gentleman representing the NAB brought up an interesting point about giving independent air play to small groups not under contract to major labels, a person who characterized the complaints of songwriters to wanting to charge broadcasters for giving them free promotion...which is about right, IMHO. Giving equal free air publicity for bands NOT under contract is what plantation-style recording labels is exactly what the labels have a problem with, and by proxy, all the songwriters they "own" in their stables, as it lets a bunch of air out of their inflated market value they believe themselves to be.
Sorry, folks, but your estimation of your own value contains as much worthless hot air as your egos do. On that topic, Mr. Arlo Guthrie, in regard to your stinginess with your father's material, noting that your father was better with original words than with original music (case in point, "Union Maid", words to the tune of "Red Wing", which he did not write) We The People whose Land this is (your land, my land), are quite anxiously awaiting your death.
You can't go viral if you don't share. Just ask One Republic, whose music is now like just about everywhere these days. That's distribution that money just can't buy.
Hey radio people--you can stop looking for a post on ARRL Field Day here. I don't like Field Day or any other similar pile-up type contesting. Forget about it.
Sunday mini-UPDATE: Interesting post about a scientist-sculptor on Facebook today. It's actually what a map of the time realm would look like, if you can picture in your mind's eye the pattern that occurs inside the object as well...
 |
| You can see how the fractal pattern extends over a flat surface; The object in the lower left quadrant is the fractal algorithm I have previously used as a basic 2-dimensional illustration of how time isn't linear. All of the objects illustrate the importance of Theta in any given path taken along a time "line" (point-to-point sequential travel). The shortcuts through time's sequences of events is more evident in the other three objects, though, while the upper right object illustrates the principle of parallel universes best, via the center, which also serves as a time/space shortcut illustration. Same is true of the lower right object. The black area in the middle of the upper right object shows only the shortcut. |
Thursday, June 26, 2014
One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Red Mississippi, Blue Mississippi
...with a footnote for gri...
I've said all along that the political problems we have boils down to having just two parties, both of which feel that it should be entitled to all voters and then repeatedly express astonishment at a relatively low turnout as a usual case.
Splits in parties are such that they don't cause the failure of a major candidate to get elected, but you can't tell it by listening to the blather of either party. They refuse to consider that the splits got out a vote that would have just stayed home but for the candidate of their preference, that the major parties' candidates simply aren't preferred.
Both parties commit a mathematical error when they look at turnout and figure that all those people would have voted for either party's major candidates if it wasn't for the split, and that's just wrong because if the split wasn't there, you should subtract the turnout by the number of people voting for the "dark horse".
In an open primary such as Mississippi's, the only people voting are voters, so it's not true that "a Republican primary was decided by Democrats". In a closed primary such as Oklahoma's, turnout is reduced by the number of voters who don't like either party, and the registered members of either party are "watered" down" by those who don't like either party but wish to meddle with the primaries. For that reason I'm a liberal who is registered as a Republican, and the publication of "Operation Chaos" admits that there are Republicans registered as Democrats.
Face it, party operatives--regardless of how you might wish that reality were otherwise, the duopoly is a major FAIL and has been for quite some time. Deal with reality, because reality is dealing with you.
gri, I've noticed your multiple hits on this blog and I'm sure you wonder where I disappeared to. The ball that was dropped by the City regarding Chautauqua has been caught by me and I'm still quite busy fielding it, so my time has been quite tied up. There's also another subversive plot going on in this fair city but I'm not at liberty to divulge what it is at this time. Yeah, as subversives go, you and I are kindred spirits in that regard but I'll say again, in case it wasn't clear the first few times: I do NOT agree with the current insurgency of old Soviets like yourself--sorry. Not everybody who claims to be "the people" plans to include ALL people while respecting the diversity of those people, and the old Soviets currently involved in the insurgency are still dictatorial.
I've said all along that the political problems we have boils down to having just two parties, both of which feel that it should be entitled to all voters and then repeatedly express astonishment at a relatively low turnout as a usual case.
Splits in parties are such that they don't cause the failure of a major candidate to get elected, but you can't tell it by listening to the blather of either party. They refuse to consider that the splits got out a vote that would have just stayed home but for the candidate of their preference, that the major parties' candidates simply aren't preferred.
Both parties commit a mathematical error when they look at turnout and figure that all those people would have voted for either party's major candidates if it wasn't for the split, and that's just wrong because if the split wasn't there, you should subtract the turnout by the number of people voting for the "dark horse".
In an open primary such as Mississippi's, the only people voting are voters, so it's not true that "a Republican primary was decided by Democrats". In a closed primary such as Oklahoma's, turnout is reduced by the number of voters who don't like either party, and the registered members of either party are "watered" down" by those who don't like either party but wish to meddle with the primaries. For that reason I'm a liberal who is registered as a Republican, and the publication of "Operation Chaos" admits that there are Republicans registered as Democrats.
Face it, party operatives--regardless of how you might wish that reality were otherwise, the duopoly is a major FAIL and has been for quite some time. Deal with reality, because reality is dealing with you.
gri, I've noticed your multiple hits on this blog and I'm sure you wonder where I disappeared to. The ball that was dropped by the City regarding Chautauqua has been caught by me and I'm still quite busy fielding it, so my time has been quite tied up. There's also another subversive plot going on in this fair city but I'm not at liberty to divulge what it is at this time. Yeah, as subversives go, you and I are kindred spirits in that regard but I'll say again, in case it wasn't clear the first few times: I do NOT agree with the current insurgency of old Soviets like yourself--sorry. Not everybody who claims to be "the people" plans to include ALL people while respecting the diversity of those people, and the old Soviets currently involved in the insurgency are still dictatorial.
Sunday, June 15, 2014
Happy Dad's Day from Mom. Add to that, Wahab evangelists strike again.
Mothers' Day was started as a byproduct of tacit protest against The Great War (WWI) and where men believed in equal rights, it was mainly to get the adoration that moms got at the time. They were the main ones fighting Over There, fer crissakes.
They're the ones in need of leaders and decision makers whether on the battlefield or when they perceive home to be a battlefield of the sexes, and that's evidenced by such oft-made statements of bewilderment as to "what women really want" as if just asking the individual woman was to be avoided. Another one: "what do you want me to do?" when the issue on the table is a statement of fact and a request for HIM to make the decision. Nada.
Dads of a certain age in the workplace won't hesitate to show pictures of the grandkids but don't have a lot to say about their own kids, or their wives. The guys that are younger than that certain age invariably talk trash about their wives, causing one to wonder why they got married to the women they're trashing in the first place. It has always boiled down to posturing to fellow males just how "in charge" they are at home when she's the one making the decisions and he's always asking her "what do you want me to do?", whine about being henpecked, then go to work and tell the crew how he told her where to go.
Guys, you don't fool anybody. Happy Fathers' Day.
MAN I totally love that new Hyundai commercial!!!
One of my Sunni Facebook friends did it again--posted a YouTube debate between religionists and atheists, and I'm about to smack him down again. Will post that here ere long.
The proceedings begin with mention of God the Compassionate and Merciful. Current events with Muslim on Muslim violence belie that, so the proceedings begin with a falsehood.
Point two: the mediator says it's a debate of Islam OR atheism while the person who posted the video on YouTube falsely claims that it's Islam VS atheism. The mediator says that both sides are respected, but clearly not by the person who posted the video on YouTube. FAIL
Point three: It's false to claim that both sides make a claim to "the truth" in the context of explaining any purpose to human existence. The claim of the atheist is that even those who claim to know via a deity don't really know, and no human being is in a position to know the mind of any deity, if one exists...and no deity does
Point four: the stated goal is to arrive at an informed position on Islam, on atheism, when it's always been the case that Sunnis refuse to recognize Shiites and Shiites refuse to recognize Sunnis, all the while Sufis try to rise above the rift by claiming a more divine orientation than either of those factions. Sunnis won't volunteer the information that they're Sunnis, nor will Shiites, for the purpose of assisting the nonbeliever to be more informed.
Point five: One comment by the mediator was pertinent to my first point: He urged the audience not to heckle the speakers and be polite at all times; "...we don't want any blood or any fights, okay--I'm sure that you guys, you understand why I'm saying that."
Point six, neither here nor there: it's cute how the moderator said "without further adieu"...coming from an Irish ex-Catholic convert to Islam. :D
Point 7: RE: "Islam makes sense of the universe". Every religion has their own origin stories that make sense of the universe and Islam is not distinct among them. Atheism is distinct among all because it knows that nobody knows, especially the people who claim to know. Sense made out of the universe has invariably been rationalization, not reason.
Point 8: RE: "Islam makes more sense of the Quranic discourse": It has a vested interest in doing that to the exclusion of others, and yet Shiite Islam doesn't make the same sense of Quranic discourse that Sunnis do, and even Sunni factions do not agree on the sense of the Quranic discourse. And Sufis have yet another sense of the Quranic discourse. Therefore the statement that all of Islam makes more sense of the Quranic discourse is patently false. Atheists agree that only science can make sense of the universe and not all the facts are in--which makes more sense than the disparate conflicting senses that Islam comes up with, depending on sect.
Point 9: Claiming that the infinite doesn't exist means that an infinite God can't exist, so the proponent of Islam just argued against the existence of an infinite God. I got a chuckle out of that one.
Point 10: using pseudomathematics to treat infinity as a finite quantity using mathematical logic. File this one under "if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with BS". It's a false equivalence worthy of another chuckle.
Point 11: Was the universe created from nothing, or something? If it was created from nothing then God = nothing. If there was nothing in the beginning, then even God wasn't there either. A universe is either eternal, or finite with a beginning, but it can't be both.
Point 12: using the answer to the question "can your mother give birth to herself" as proof that the universe didn't create itself is ludicrous. Mom never was a universe even if you think she's that fat. Non sequitur.
Point 13: Hamza takes issue with interpretations of Occam's Razor by creating his own interpretation using undefined abstractl terms which leaves only himself to define He then launches into a series of false equivalencies I'll not itemize due to the number of them.
Point 14: RE: the nature of the Quran as a series of questions talking to each person is belied by the different interpretations committed by different Islamic sects and the different schools within the sects. FACT: the nature of the Quran is a recitation, not a book, and to hold the book holy is to create an idol of the book and the sanctification of the book is idolatry. It is false pretense to pretend that Islam is monolithic with only one school of thought.
Point 15: Definition of a miracle--Hamza misuses the terms inductive and deductive and deliberately commits a convoluted fog of obfuscation far astray from any point at hand.
Point 17: Hamza departs from the topic entirely by his discourse on Quranic Arabic but still not acknowledging that the nature of the Quran is necessarily an Arabic recitation that isn't on paper. The type of Arabic that the Quran uses is NOT a miracle, and as a recitation, the Quran never was a literary discourse. Claiming that it is a miracle is n't proof that it makes more sense either. FAIL
If, as Hamza claims, the literary form of the Quran falls outside of the capacity of the Arabic language, what this proves is that it does NOT make more sense; in fact, it makes less sense, as discourse that utilizes the language most effectively also makes the most sense.
Point 18: Yeah, what about Shakespeare? What the hell does Shakespeare prove or disprove about either atheism or Islam? Absolutely nothing! Actually no--we are NOT talking about the parameters of the Arabic language or any other language parameters either, for that matter. Having proven nothing that made sense, Hamza relinquishes the microphone to Lawrence.
They're the ones in need of leaders and decision makers whether on the battlefield or when they perceive home to be a battlefield of the sexes, and that's evidenced by such oft-made statements of bewilderment as to "what women really want" as if just asking the individual woman was to be avoided. Another one: "what do you want me to do?" when the issue on the table is a statement of fact and a request for HIM to make the decision. Nada.
Dads of a certain age in the workplace won't hesitate to show pictures of the grandkids but don't have a lot to say about their own kids, or their wives. The guys that are younger than that certain age invariably talk trash about their wives, causing one to wonder why they got married to the women they're trashing in the first place. It has always boiled down to posturing to fellow males just how "in charge" they are at home when she's the one making the decisions and he's always asking her "what do you want me to do?", whine about being henpecked, then go to work and tell the crew how he told her where to go.
Guys, you don't fool anybody. Happy Fathers' Day.
MAN I totally love that new Hyundai commercial!!!
One of my Sunni Facebook friends did it again--posted a YouTube debate between religionists and atheists, and I'm about to smack him down again. Will post that here ere long.
WARNING: this is a two hour debate
Below are counterpoints to each point made in the video.
Below are counterpoints to each point made in the video.
The proceedings begin with mention of God the Compassionate and Merciful. Current events with Muslim on Muslim violence belie that, so the proceedings begin with a falsehood.
Point two: the mediator says it's a debate of Islam OR atheism while the person who posted the video on YouTube falsely claims that it's Islam VS atheism. The mediator says that both sides are respected, but clearly not by the person who posted the video on YouTube. FAIL
Point three: It's false to claim that both sides make a claim to "the truth" in the context of explaining any purpose to human existence. The claim of the atheist is that even those who claim to know via a deity don't really know, and no human being is in a position to know the mind of any deity, if one exists...and no deity does
Point four: the stated goal is to arrive at an informed position on Islam, on atheism, when it's always been the case that Sunnis refuse to recognize Shiites and Shiites refuse to recognize Sunnis, all the while Sufis try to rise above the rift by claiming a more divine orientation than either of those factions. Sunnis won't volunteer the information that they're Sunnis, nor will Shiites, for the purpose of assisting the nonbeliever to be more informed.
Point five: One comment by the mediator was pertinent to my first point: He urged the audience not to heckle the speakers and be polite at all times; "...we don't want any blood or any fights, okay--I'm sure that you guys, you understand why I'm saying that."
Point six, neither here nor there: it's cute how the moderator said "without further adieu"...coming from an Irish ex-Catholic convert to Islam. :D
Point 7: RE: "Islam makes sense of the universe". Every religion has their own origin stories that make sense of the universe and Islam is not distinct among them. Atheism is distinct among all because it knows that nobody knows, especially the people who claim to know. Sense made out of the universe has invariably been rationalization, not reason.
Point 8: RE: "Islam makes more sense of the Quranic discourse": It has a vested interest in doing that to the exclusion of others, and yet Shiite Islam doesn't make the same sense of Quranic discourse that Sunnis do, and even Sunni factions do not agree on the sense of the Quranic discourse. And Sufis have yet another sense of the Quranic discourse. Therefore the statement that all of Islam makes more sense of the Quranic discourse is patently false. Atheists agree that only science can make sense of the universe and not all the facts are in--which makes more sense than the disparate conflicting senses that Islam comes up with, depending on sect.
Point 9: Claiming that the infinite doesn't exist means that an infinite God can't exist, so the proponent of Islam just argued against the existence of an infinite God. I got a chuckle out of that one.
Point 10: using pseudomathematics to treat infinity as a finite quantity using mathematical logic. File this one under "if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with BS". It's a false equivalence worthy of another chuckle.
Point 11: Was the universe created from nothing, or something? If it was created from nothing then God = nothing. If there was nothing in the beginning, then even God wasn't there either. A universe is either eternal, or finite with a beginning, but it can't be both.
Point 12: using the answer to the question "can your mother give birth to herself" as proof that the universe didn't create itself is ludicrous. Mom never was a universe even if you think she's that fat. Non sequitur.
Point 13: Hamza takes issue with interpretations of Occam's Razor by creating his own interpretation using undefined abstractl terms which leaves only himself to define He then launches into a series of false equivalencies I'll not itemize due to the number of them.
Point 14: RE: the nature of the Quran as a series of questions talking to each person is belied by the different interpretations committed by different Islamic sects and the different schools within the sects. FACT: the nature of the Quran is a recitation, not a book, and to hold the book holy is to create an idol of the book and the sanctification of the book is idolatry. It is false pretense to pretend that Islam is monolithic with only one school of thought.
Point 15: Definition of a miracle--Hamza misuses the terms inductive and deductive and deliberately commits a convoluted fog of obfuscation far astray from any point at hand.
Point 17: Hamza departs from the topic entirely by his discourse on Quranic Arabic but still not acknowledging that the nature of the Quran is necessarily an Arabic recitation that isn't on paper. The type of Arabic that the Quran uses is NOT a miracle, and as a recitation, the Quran never was a literary discourse. Claiming that it is a miracle is n't proof that it makes more sense either. FAIL
If, as Hamza claims, the literary form of the Quran falls outside of the capacity of the Arabic language, what this proves is that it does NOT make more sense; in fact, it makes less sense, as discourse that utilizes the language most effectively also makes the most sense.
Point 18: Yeah, what about Shakespeare? What the hell does Shakespeare prove or disprove about either atheism or Islam? Absolutely nothing! Actually no--we are NOT talking about the parameters of the Arabic language or any other language parameters either, for that matter. Having proven nothing that made sense, Hamza relinquishes the microphone to Lawrence.
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Dubya's Tiger -- Iraq...plus Friday the 13th Update
There was a young lady from Niger
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger;
--They returned from the ride
--With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger.
Blaming Obama for the situation in Iraq would be far from accurate, considering that the president that got the U.S. aboard the Iraqi tiger was from the party now trying to blame the party opposite.
Reports that the insurgents are Sunni commit a sin of omission: they're Wahabi Salafist Sunnis, otherwise more accurately characterized as fundamentalists, and I'd go so far as to call them AbuBekrists, considering Islamic history AND the fact that Wahabs tout turning back the clock to Ayisha-era domination before the Battle of the Camel, preferring to ignore that the Battle of the Camel ever happened.
Euro-centric Christians remain ignorant of this little detail (the Battle of the Camel) when claiming that non-distinct Islamists all seek to re-establish the Califate Empire using the method of conquistadors, but I daresay that Al Qaida is just as ignorant as they are in ignoring the essential role of the Battle of the Camel in creating the environment necessary to the building of that original empire, and that both Christian and Islamist camps are equally megalomanical.
The only time when the Roman Empire and the Califate Empire flourished is when they were functionally republics. No empire flourishes under an emperor.
The leader's name: Abu Bekr Al Baghdadi, namesake of Ayisha's daddy. You know, the one who pawned his 9 year old daughter to Mohammed in exchange for military free rein. Surprise, surprise. Oh, how much different things would be for the U.S. if we took the opportunity to get on better footing with Iran--if we take another go at it, it'll be solo. If we don't give it a go, I'm sure Iran's not going to sit idly by.
The elephant in that room is Syria, inside of which is was the other capital of the first Califate Empire (Damascus). Can't count on a militant Sunni Wahabist to grok THAT part of Islamic history. FAIL
The Ommiyades, Sunnis, ruled the empire from Damascus, not Baghdad. It's the Shiite (Fatimite) Abbasides that ruled the Empire from Baghdad. Iraq has always been mostly Shiite, not Sunni, and those Wahabists had best get used to it. By their blatant ignorance of how the Battle of the Camel was resolved, ISIS is an organization of blasphemers.
The Abu Bekr that Al Baghdadi names himself after was Calif only 2 years, got captured in Damascus and died in custody, but not before naming Omar his successor. Yes, the Ommiyyad Omar whose successors ruled from not Baghdad but Damascus. Again: it's the Shiite (Fatimite) government that ruled from Baghdad, and ISIS is a bunch of Islamic idiots.
To the person who just googled "the doctor's name" and got this blog: there are several different ways it translates into English, and one way that hasn't been mentioned before is "Fortunate Future Journey". It's still a rough translation, which isn't completely accurate, though, but that's one of the usual drawbacks of translating Gallifreyan into English. "Madman" is equally accurate and more pertinent to the meaning of "Theta Sigma", the latter of which has more of a "Fortunate Future Journey" meaning to it than "Madman" does. Still another translation: "Knowledgeable Path Forward"--and that can also be said as "Clever Sojourn Ahead". The Doctor was a "Clever boy" indeed, as Oswald knew quite well. Several entendres can be had with the Doctor's name, and I expect that the Doctor is just as cagy about that aspect as he is about the inaccuracy of various translations of it.
Question: How is it that some of those terms are claimed to be related when, in English, they really aren't? Answer: more connotatively than denotatively. The most accurate English language representation of the Doctor's name is in mathematics as understood by English speaking mathematicians, because neither Gallifreyan nor English is Greek (Theta Sigma, and that's the Doctor's name "for short." The nickname "Thete" is even shorter, putting emphasis on the turns taken rather than the path necessarily forward). Theta is angle of rotation mathematically, but when you take the phrase "gone around the bend" as a euphemism for "madman" you find the connotative equivalency. Shortening the name to "Thete" is basically calling the Doctor "twisted".
It's the Sigma component that suggests knowledgeable path forward (mathematical progression), calculated path forward, clever path forward considering its function in the algorithm determining time travel to the future--it's the contextual connotation which also equates to the English expression "calculated risk" without the risk part but in travel forward instead. The sigma component in the algorithm infers that there was deliberation involved in taking a course plotted out by the summation of carefully chosen paths of a particular angle of rotation .
The leader's name: Abu Bekr Al Baghdadi, namesake of Ayisha's daddy. You know, the one who pawned his 9 year old daughter to Mohammed in exchange for military free rein. Surprise, surprise. Oh, how much different things would be for the U.S. if we took the opportunity to get on better footing with Iran--if we take another go at it, it'll be solo. If we don't give it a go, I'm sure Iran's not going to sit idly by.
The elephant in that room is Syria, inside of which is was the other capital of the first Califate Empire (Damascus). Can't count on a militant Sunni Wahabist to grok THAT part of Islamic history. FAIL
The Ommiyades, Sunnis, ruled the empire from Damascus, not Baghdad. It's the Shiite (Fatimite) Abbasides that ruled the Empire from Baghdad. Iraq has always been mostly Shiite, not Sunni, and those Wahabists had best get used to it. By their blatant ignorance of how the Battle of the Camel was resolved, ISIS is an organization of blasphemers.
The Abu Bekr that Al Baghdadi names himself after was Calif only 2 years, got captured in Damascus and died in custody, but not before naming Omar his successor. Yes, the Ommiyyad Omar whose successors ruled from not Baghdad but Damascus. Again: it's the Shiite (Fatimite) government that ruled from Baghdad, and ISIS is a bunch of Islamic idiots.
To the person who just googled "the doctor's name" and got this blog: there are several different ways it translates into English, and one way that hasn't been mentioned before is "Fortunate Future Journey". It's still a rough translation, which isn't completely accurate, though, but that's one of the usual drawbacks of translating Gallifreyan into English. "Madman" is equally accurate and more pertinent to the meaning of "Theta Sigma", the latter of which has more of a "Fortunate Future Journey" meaning to it than "Madman" does. Still another translation: "Knowledgeable Path Forward"--and that can also be said as "Clever Sojourn Ahead". The Doctor was a "Clever boy" indeed, as Oswald knew quite well. Several entendres can be had with the Doctor's name, and I expect that the Doctor is just as cagy about that aspect as he is about the inaccuracy of various translations of it.
Question: How is it that some of those terms are claimed to be related when, in English, they really aren't? Answer: more connotatively than denotatively. The most accurate English language representation of the Doctor's name is in mathematics as understood by English speaking mathematicians, because neither Gallifreyan nor English is Greek (Theta Sigma, and that's the Doctor's name "for short." The nickname "Thete" is even shorter, putting emphasis on the turns taken rather than the path necessarily forward). Theta is angle of rotation mathematically, but when you take the phrase "gone around the bend" as a euphemism for "madman" you find the connotative equivalency. Shortening the name to "Thete" is basically calling the Doctor "twisted".
It's the Sigma component that suggests knowledgeable path forward (mathematical progression), calculated path forward, clever path forward considering its function in the algorithm determining time travel to the future--it's the contextual connotation which also equates to the English expression "calculated risk" without the risk part but in travel forward instead. The sigma component in the algorithm infers that there was deliberation involved in taking a course plotted out by the summation of carefully chosen paths of a particular angle of rotation .
Yeah, that deal about Eric Cantor is a big deal in American politics, to be sure. But it basically boils down to party internal cannibalism. I'm not complaining. I'll just point out how Democrats had a hand in this by insisting on there being only two anointed parties in the U.S. The GOP as we knew it died when Dubya left office, but it's the GOP that the Dems had ballot access and debates agreements with and basically proceeded with the GOP as a walking dead party...yeah, a Dem-supported zombie party. I for one ain't surprised when the Tea Party body snatchers took over the zombie; Dems were keeping the corpse fresh for 'em.
Congrats to legendary local actor John Ferguson for his role as Dr. Finski in Army of Frankensteins! Aka Count Gregore...
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| This event took place as part of the Dead Center Film Festival in Oklahoma City, on Friday. |
UPDATE Friday the 13th:
Mourning for Cameroon's loss today. (World Cup).
Nice timing for John Ferguson (Count Gregore) being an award winner in time for the full moon Friday 13th. I'm sure I speak for the entire Mysterious Lab of Dr. Fear when I say kudos, well done sir, this the most appropriate day after your award.
It's also Ricard Strauss' birthday today, and he's a favorite composer. So are the other Strausses. I've always been a big sucker for a good waltz.
In interesting coincidence comes another FB posting in advent of the Enid Summer Chautauqua and a certain recently expressed cynicism of certain historian "experts":
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| ...what I call "the expert syndrome"... |
No. I am still not going.
....except that I went anyway, because I got the news that there would be no Public Access cameras there, as an official statement passed on to me by John Provine. Well, I got MY cameras out, and scrambled to get tripods basically via short-hop time travel. One tripod came from the late 1950s, one from the mid 1930s, added to the one recent tripod I got) and recorded each and every performance and a few workshops along with some of the introductory entertainments. I posted about this in my Never Say Never post subsequent to this post.
Yup--I'm no time lord but every once in a while, it befalls the lot of the time traveler to save the universe. It's my turn.
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| The one from the 1950s. They just don't make 'em like this anymore. |
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| From the 1930s. Nobody makes 'em like this anymore either. |
Monday, June 09, 2014
Mini-Update Monday as a warning to those similarly inclined.
Definition: spoonerism
Virginia Senator Resigns
I'll bet that the lead singer for the Union Gap never realized until today just how lucky he was to be named Gary.
THIS JUST IN via Facebook--
More Facebook fun on Wednesday:
It doesn't matter--the big question is whether or not God is proud of his work. I expect him to be, if he's out there. Now, if YOU aren't proud of me, take your complaints to the guy responsible for the intelligent design.
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| 'Nuff said. |
I'll bet that the lead singer for the Union Gap never realized until today just how lucky he was to be named Gary.
THIS JUST IN via Facebook--
More Facebook fun on Wednesday:
Friday, June 06, 2014
The Doctor's T.A.R.D.I.S. dropped in at the Enid Public Library today
....and I have the vids and pics. They're just not ready to post just now, but when they are, I'll post 'em right here.
OF COURSE my Shada Scarf was to be envied! I was asked if I showed up as Captain Jack until I got that thing out. I introduced myself as the original Impossible Person Clara and of course nobody believed it.
Every historian that I ever bedevilled knows better, though, don't they. Tom Baker knows better, too.
Pics and vids to come, so watch this space. Yeah, Blogger is still effed up re: vids so the best I can do is iPhone type. Sorry.
There was a major disappointment, and it was the lack of favorite refreshments-absolutely NO jelly babies or jammie dodgers in sight!!!!!!
I've posted my favorite recipe for jammie dodgers before, last year, but I'm happy to post it again:
If you want to make jammy dodgers from scratch, try this:
2 3/4 cup sifted flour a few grains of salt
1/2 cup heavy cream red jam or preserves
1 cup soft butter sugar, to roll the dough out on
Mix flour, cream, salt, and butter well until thoroughly blended. Chill for several hours until thoroughly cold and firm. Spread your board with sugar and roll the dough out to about 1/8" thickness and cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter (or similar implement, like a saved and washed vegetable can). Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes and then cool the rounds off. Then just make jam sandwiches out of them and put back on the cookie sheet, 1/2" apart because the jam will melt off a bit, and bake another 2 minutes. Remove and cool again, trimming whatever jam has dripped off the edges while they're warm.
A nice touch would be to cut the disks, but in half the disks use some small round thing to cut a center hole so they'd better resemble the Doctor's favorite jammy dodgers, if you like.
Unfortunately, due to Blogger technical video difficulties, vids are confined to iPhone size/quality.
Below, that's a genuine candlestick phone in the phone box. The voice in the phone asks, "Are you my mummy?"
Tuesday UPDATE: The library finally posted the pics...and by golly, guess who else was there...
Enid's man-about-town, Richard. We had a nice chat, too...about how Who belongs in Who's Who.
There's not too many of me in a pound to begin with and that Shada scarf Betsy Ross gave me definitely didn't do my figure any favors (you can well imagine just how fond she'd be of anyone who might be fond of the British). The Doctor got all huffy about all that American stuff, especially the American-made Sugar Babies. There's just nowhere that a Yankee can find jelly babies even if a Yankee wanted to...which I didn't...
Late Saturday PM UPDATE: Was going thru some old videos for old City Commission content while tuned to PEG channel 11 on the tube, and although the old movie (Spitfire) being shown didn't exhibit even Jim Nay's bug, suddenly an old PEGASYS bug appeared, and I hit the Record button. That 'un's a KEEPER!
.................and.............now...........at the end of the movie................is the standard disclaimer about not reflecting the views of yadda yadda.......................and.........yeah, buddy.........
LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!!!
None too soon, apparently; the Enid Television (haha---) Network (chuckle) left a lot of holes in this Saturday's published sked for next week. A bunch of somebodies have pulled their programming. That's fine with me, though. It gives the new Punched Out Judy Show an earlier opening. One can hope.
OF COURSE my Shada Scarf was to be envied! I was asked if I showed up as Captain Jack until I got that thing out. I introduced myself as the original Impossible Person Clara and of course nobody believed it.
Every historian that I ever bedevilled knows better, though, don't they. Tom Baker knows better, too.
Pics and vids to come, so watch this space. Yeah, Blogger is still effed up re: vids so the best I can do is iPhone type. Sorry.
There was a major disappointment, and it was the lack of favorite refreshments-absolutely NO jelly babies or jammie dodgers in sight!!!!!!
I've posted my favorite recipe for jammie dodgers before, last year, but I'm happy to post it again:
If you want to make jammy dodgers from scratch, try this:
2 3/4 cup sifted flour a few grains of salt
1/2 cup heavy cream red jam or preserves
1 cup soft butter sugar, to roll the dough out on
Mix flour, cream, salt, and butter well until thoroughly blended. Chill for several hours until thoroughly cold and firm. Spread your board with sugar and roll the dough out to about 1/8" thickness and cut out rounds with a biscuit cutter (or similar implement, like a saved and washed vegetable can). Bake in a 350 degree oven for 8 minutes and then cool the rounds off. Then just make jam sandwiches out of them and put back on the cookie sheet, 1/2" apart because the jam will melt off a bit, and bake another 2 minutes. Remove and cool again, trimming whatever jam has dripped off the edges while they're warm.
A nice touch would be to cut the disks, but in half the disks use some small round thing to cut a center hole so they'd better resemble the Doctor's favorite jammy dodgers, if you like.
Unfortunately, due to Blogger technical video difficulties, vids are confined to iPhone size/quality.
Below, that's a genuine candlestick phone in the phone box. The voice in the phone asks, "Are you my mummy?"
Tuesday UPDATE: The library finally posted the pics...and by golly, guess who else was there...
Enid's man-about-town, Richard. We had a nice chat, too...about how Who belongs in Who's Who.
There's not too many of me in a pound to begin with and that Shada scarf Betsy Ross gave me definitely didn't do my figure any favors (you can well imagine just how fond she'd be of anyone who might be fond of the British). The Doctor got all huffy about all that American stuff, especially the American-made Sugar Babies. There's just nowhere that a Yankee can find jelly babies even if a Yankee wanted to...which I didn't...
Late Saturday PM UPDATE: Was going thru some old videos for old City Commission content while tuned to PEG channel 11 on the tube, and although the old movie (Spitfire) being shown didn't exhibit even Jim Nay's bug, suddenly an old PEGASYS bug appeared, and I hit the Record button. That 'un's a KEEPER!
.................and.............now...........at the end of the movie................is the standard disclaimer about not reflecting the views of yadda yadda.......................and.........yeah, buddy.........
"Classic movie presented by Wendy Quarels"
LET THE REVOLUTION BEGIN!!!
None too soon, apparently; the Enid Television (haha---) Network (chuckle) left a lot of holes in this Saturday's published sked for next week. A bunch of somebodies have pulled their programming. That's fine with me, though. It gives the new Punched Out Judy Show an earlier opening. One can hope.
Monday, June 02, 2014
My take on prisoner swap: Egypt = elephant in the room & update
Qatar is the link to Egypt as the elephant in the negotiation room of the prisoner swap, in terms of Egypt's attitude toward the jailing of the Al Jazeera "journalists" and the Brotherhood. So we got in bed with the Brotherhood to get one guy back in exchange for a bunch of high commanding officers. Got it.
So what if the Dems and Reps are squabbling over the role of Congress--they always squabble about that. The view from Egypt, I'm afraid, is considerably different and it's that already-shaky relationship that's gonna go down the tubes first, and because of who we employed as negotiator in addition to how unequal the swap was. Not a whole lot of people buy the claim that Al Jaz is "editorially independent" of the Qatar government, you know.
A more hostile Egypt has consequences for Israel, so I expect that the people in the U.S. to whine the loudest won't be your generic Republican--it'll be AIPAC.
Al Jaz article on the swap
Tuesday mini-UPDATE: I've been up to my eyeballs in alligators recently, hence the terse blog posts of late--but I still keep an eye on blog stats. As Enid closes in on Chautauqua week, traffic to some very very very old posts on that topic have picked up quite a bit. It's this that makes me feel guilty about failing to mention here, in a timely fashion, the filmmakers now in Oklahoma with Kickstart financing doing a movie about (groan) the Civil War era, but in particular, a particular steamboat on the Mississippi River (YAY AND A HALF!!). I've said before that I don't do the Civil War even as a time traveler because it's been done to death, particularly in the South, but a Mississippi River steamer will definitely turn my head every time.
More about the S. S. Sultana
S. S. Sultana's Wiki page
So what if the Dems and Reps are squabbling over the role of Congress--they always squabble about that. The view from Egypt, I'm afraid, is considerably different and it's that already-shaky relationship that's gonna go down the tubes first, and because of who we employed as negotiator in addition to how unequal the swap was. Not a whole lot of people buy the claim that Al Jaz is "editorially independent" of the Qatar government, you know.
A more hostile Egypt has consequences for Israel, so I expect that the people in the U.S. to whine the loudest won't be your generic Republican--it'll be AIPAC.
Al Jaz article on the swap
Tuesday mini-UPDATE: I've been up to my eyeballs in alligators recently, hence the terse blog posts of late--but I still keep an eye on blog stats. As Enid closes in on Chautauqua week, traffic to some very very very old posts on that topic have picked up quite a bit. It's this that makes me feel guilty about failing to mention here, in a timely fashion, the filmmakers now in Oklahoma with Kickstart financing doing a movie about (groan) the Civil War era, but in particular, a particular steamboat on the Mississippi River (YAY AND A HALF!!). I've said before that I don't do the Civil War even as a time traveler because it's been done to death, particularly in the South, but a Mississippi River steamer will definitely turn my head every time.
More about the S. S. Sultana
S. S. Sultana's Wiki page
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