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From a series by Tom Tomorrow.

via language log
Conceivably Related PostsYou say I’m a bitch like it’s a bad thingEighteen members of New York’s City Council have sponsored a resolution to ban the use of bitch an…Language WarsLanguage Hat has been following the arguments about Russian translation that have been taking place …Language MapsOxford University Press [...]

My sites are closed today for Labor Day (and besides, all except Frisco Vista are moving to a new server. Nothing should change for visitors, but it means I can’t update the sites very well for a few hours). Meanwhile, here’s a Labor Day message from Can’t Keep Quiet.

Conceivably Related PostsIndependent book publishing, part 1It’s [...]

I’ve been thinking about how our system of appointing Supreme Court justices is flawed. Life expectancy is increasing and presidents are appointing younger justices now, who might serve thirty or forty years. If several positions open up during the same term, a single president has the ability to determine the course of the court for [...]

The new ability created by Wikipedia Scanner to track Wikipedia edits by IP address has brought some folks hours of entertainment. Where have the collaborative encyclopedia’s edits been coming from?

Fox News. You will be shocked — shocked! — to learn that they have been spinning items in a conservative direction.
Diebold, the electronic voting machine vendor. [...]

TimesOnline reports that liars have trouble telling their stories in reverse order. It’s a good way to trip up falsehoods. Let’s try it out …
“We’re fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq, and, let’s see, we went in, the United Nations … no that was, um, there were weapons of mass destruction, no wait, that was, let’s [...]

That’s the headline I’m reading here. Seems Europeans have been gaining on us, to the point where Americans are now shorter than the average Dutchman. From the article:
Researchers have established in recent years that wealthier families tend to provide better nutrition for their children and, as a result, they tend to grow taller. The drastic [...]

According to the lawyer of the alleged “D.C. Madam,” Vice President Cheney “isn’t not” on her list of phone records.
Conceivably Related PostsDick Cheney inks book deal with Judith ReganIf I Did It: Faking the Case for WarInside the Lair

Wonkette alertly snagged these photos from the Official Residence of VP Dick C before the Flickr…Left Face, [...]

Interesting. Republicans here, Democrats here. Via Vark.

Sorry posting has been slow. I’m about to break out another site, announcement soon.
Conceivably Related PostsA proposal to amend the U.S. ConstitutionI’ve been thinking about how our system of appointing Supreme Court justices is flawed. Life expecta…Raul’s LiesLies I’ve told my 3 year old recently
By Raul Gutierrez

Trees [...]

“People who regularly watch The Daily Show and The Colbert Report could correctly answer more political trivia questions than those who watch CNN or Fox News or especially the teevee network news — those people were only barely cognizant of their own arms.”
Via Wonkette.
Conceivably Related PostsSemi-buzzRecently there has been an uptick in talk about semicolons. [...]

Apparently the following is a real post from Senator Brownback’s real website. This man wants to be your president!

Why is memory not taught at every level of our educational system
April 11, 2007
The greeks believed in such a discipline and the best became Roman slaves, who taugh the Romans. All around the med this was true. [...]

Cheney video set to Radiohead’s “Creep.”

Conceivably Related PostsNo related posts

No, wait, it’s a camera.

Orwellian Evening Standard article on surveillance cameras around Orwell’s home via exploding aardvark
Conceivably Related PostsBook publishing debut — at 96Harry Bernstein has published his first book, a memoir called The Invisible Wall (Ballantine), at th…Dept. of Headlines That Speak for ThemselvesNew York Times Will Lower Editorial Standards Online And Reduce Size [...]

Not much sign of it in this Newsweek poll. Among its findings:

Nearly half of all Americans believe that evolution is not well supported by evidence and is not widely accepted within the scientific community (despite numerous expressions of scientific support from Nobel Prize winners, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the United States [...]

… according to his website. Explanation: he was stealing images (ripping off bandwidth) for his myspace site and the image host retaliated with a little prank.
I know how the guy (Newsvine Founder and CEO Mike Davidson) feels. What is it about myspace sites? Lately a lot of myspace pages have been using my bandwidth [...]

I returned recently from el mundo maya, where I visited several sacred sites. As far as I am aware, no purification ritual was required after my visits.
The same is not true of President Bush, who is visiting the ancient site of Iximche near my old home town of Mixco. Following Bush’s visit, Maya priests will [...]

Bush Heads for Latin America to Counter Appeal of Chávez
The headline appeared in the Guardian (where they actually put the diacritic in Chávez’s name). I mean, Bush currently has a record low approval rating here in the U.S. Imagine what his approval rating is in Latin America. How many hearts is this guy going to [...]

The Wikipedia gestapo have struck again. Some idiot named “Acalamari,” who is a big Christina Aguilera and Star Trek fan, believes that “having race and an extreme emotion in one username … is likely to cause problems.”
Shortly after signing up for Wikipedia ABW found her name the subject of an extensive discussion. Read all about [...]

In a startling admission, Henry Kissinger, writing an op-ed piece in — of all places — the Khaleej Times (Dubai), says:
American forces are … in Iraq not as a favour to its government or as a reward for its conduct. They are there as an expression of the American national interest to prevent the Iranian [...]

Okay, here’s the deal. I conned the country into electing me, but I’m a crook, and the feds have got the goods and are looking to lock me up. You’re a plodding pol who could never get elected to this job. I know you want it. So I’ll resign, and then you’ll give me a [...]

Zugzwang is among several excellent words that come to us from the game of chess. Others … oh hell, I hadn’t intended to, but I might as well list a few:

en passant: taking a pawn even though it has seemingly sped to the square next to its captor by moving forward two squares
en prise: a [...]