1. Never say anything in clear, direct English if you can obfuscate it with technical jargon. (This also works beautifully in literary criticism; just check out the writings of Jacques Lacan.) For instance, if someone asks you how, exactly, radio signals are encoded, toss off this jaunty phrase: "Oh, you just modulate the amplitude of the sine wave!" All the scientists out there understand this immediately, but trust me, to the average American, the sentence conveys no actual meaning, even though they listen to their radios every day.
But how would you say "modulate the amplitude of the sine wave" in clear, direct English? I can't come up with anything.
For lighter news
[link]
Tales of the City: Dog on the Track
quote:
"Hi, I’m at Parkside Avenue. I’m going to be a while. There’s a dog in front of the train.”
“I don’t know what kind of dog it is. But it’s been running in front of the train, and it does not look tired.”
Tom and Trudy. We meet again.
Suddenly, I am imagining the (Former) Prime Minister of Thailand in that dinner party scene from Studio 60 last night. I don't know what he looks like in real life, but in my head, he looks smashing in a cocktail dress and black ribbon headband.
Hey all, thanks for the birthday wishes. I just got back from yummy cuban food and sangria - a fine midweek lunch. I haven't been around here much lately, but it's nice to drop back in and see familiar faces.
Hey lori - do folks at NASA observer Talk Like a Pirate Day?
Hey lori - do folks at NASA observer Talk Like a Pirate Day?
Yeah! Tell us about your quest for the starrrrrrrs!
Do ye talk like Space Pirates? Arrgh?
Sorry to be all non-piratical and un-fun, but I just stumbled across this and it made me utterly fucking sick. This rendition and torture of a completely innocent Canadian happened almost three goddamn years ago. How can I have been so utterly ignorant as not to hear about it until just now?
His personal testimony. God save us from ourselves, please.
This is the happiest and saddest story I have ever heard: [link] Siblings reunited 65 years after being separated
Using database of Holocaust survivors, family resolves a long-time mystery
