21 August 2007

Stuff I've Had Open in My Windows For Like More than Two Weeks Now

I read things on the web. And I want to share them, but with who? And but I procrastinate, so then I just leave the page open and say I'll deal with it later.

And but so my computer runs out of memory, and restarts. In the past, the pages were lost to the void of entropy. And I was born again.

But so now my Firefox asks me if I want to restore my lost session. As an unreformed packrat, of course I click "Yes!" (If there were a button that said, "God please yes please please please give it back! Let me keep it!! GIVE IT BACK!" I would click that.)

And so but then now so what I've got is 8 browser windows tabbed out the wazoo, and growing.

Gah! I post some of them here so that I can close them, and maybe again watch video on my computer. Notice that these are just the wikipedia articles.

1) Longevity myths - "Longevity narratives include the story of Fountain of Youth, the village-elder narrative, the story of Shangri-La, the "Nationalist"-tale, etc."

2) Chanakya - the Indian Machiavelli! The premiere economist! Because he was born with all his teeth, he had them knocked out as a baby! I had enough trouble with the teeth coming in. Poor kid.

3) Abugida - like an alphabet, but different. The vowels are part of the letter, so that 'ki' and 'ku' are different letters. More than half of the world's languages use an abugida! Also, superinterestingly, the name is derived from Greek alphabet order, just like our own "alphabet". Except it's the first four (Α, Β, Γ, Δ) instead of the first two.

4) Cecil Rhodes - the founder of the Rhodes scholarship, the namesake of Northern and Southern Rhodesia, and a supreme bastard. Who knew? Seriously, because I didn't. I thought he was a nice guy (maybe because of the scholarship?) But really - what an a-hole! He wanted to form a world-wide secret society to keep Great Britain on top. I shit you not, blog. It was in his will.

5) Ussher chronology - a story in which the Primate of Ireland (!) says the world began October 22, 4004. Probably fiction.

6) Joseph-Désiré Mobutu - aka Mobuto Sese Seko, a.k.a. Mobutu Sese Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga, i.e. "Mobutu the earthy, the peppery, all-powerful warrior who, by his endurance and will to win, goes from contest to contest leaving fire in his wake." Not bad for a fake name, if I do say so myself.

7) Cord Widderich - perhaps the most famous of all the German pirates.

8) William R. Higgins - USMC Colonel who, in 1988, was kidnapped by a group suspected of ties to Hezbollah. The Reagan Administration designated him a hostage, instead of a P.O.W., and so did not insist that he be treated according to International law. The videotape of his hanging became a hot news item around the world.

9) Reagan Assassination Attempt - check this shit out: "Scott Hinckley, brother of John W. Hinckley Jr. who allegedly shot at Reagan, was to have dined tonight in Denver at the home of Neil Bush, one of the Vice President's sons....The Houston Post said it was unable to reach Scott Hinckley, vice president of his father's Denver-based firm, Vanderbilt Energy Corp., for comment. Neil Bush lives in Denver, where he works for Standard Oil Co. of Indiana. In 1978, Neil Bush served as campaign manager for his brother, George W. Bush, the Vice President's eldest son, who made an unsuccessful bid for Congress. Neil lived in Lubbock, Texas, throughout much of 1978, where John Hinckley lived from 1974 through 1980."

10) Radio Masts and Towers - I just like this a lot. Nothing interesting to anybody else, I don't think.

11) Katharine Graham - head of the Washington Post during the Watergate scandal, threatened by the Attorney General with a tit-wringing, alumna of the Madeira school (whose red plastic cup used to be my toothbrush holder).

12) Deborah Davis - wrote a book about number 11. Also, refused to provide ID to Federal Police when riding on a public bus. The Government threatened her with a year in prison and a $100,000 fine (in violation of (at least) the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments), but dropped all charges the day before her arraignment. Pussies.

1 comment:

anna said...

dude, if anyone ever asks me what my friend jb is like, i will probably send them a link to this post.