Favorites from languagehat
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Can't sleep. Juhyo will eat me.
I want to put winter behind me like any other right-thinking Midwesterner, but these trees are too cool to ignore.
Copyrighting content published online under pen-name
If I publish short story / prose under a pen-name online (e.g. on a blog) with appropriate copyright notice in the blog (e.g. (C) [pen-name e-mail address]), would it be enough to protect its copyright until I formally publish it in a (real) book?
gastronomic convergence
The Mexican kitchen's Islamic connection
:"When Mexico’s leading writer, Nobel Prize laureate Octavio Paz, arrived in New Delhi in 1962 to take up his post as ambassador to India, he quickly ran across a culinary puzzle. Although Mexico and India were on opposite sides of the globe, the brown, spicy, aromatic curries that he was offered in India sparked memories of Mexico’s national dish, mole (pronounced MO-lay). Is mole, he wondered, “an ingenious Mexican version of curry, or is curry a Hindu adaptation of a Mexican sauce ?” How could this seeming coincidence of “gastronomic geography” be explained ?"
The Makhmalbaf Film House
The Makhmalbafs
are an Iranian family of filmmakers, although Samira tends to get the most press.
Database of free speculative fiction online
Free Speculative Fiction Online
is a database of free science fiction and fantasy stories online by published authors (no fan-fiction or stories by unpublished writers). Among the authors that FSFO links to are Paul Di Filippo (14 stories), James Tiptree, Jr. (4 stories), Connie Willis (3 stories), Eleanor Arnason (3 stories), Bruce Sterling (5 stories), Robert Heinlein (7 stories), Ursula K. LeGuin (3 stories), Jonathan Lethem (5 stories), Michael Moorcock (6 stories), Chine Miéville (2 stories), Samuel R. Delany (3 stories), Robert Sheckley (8 stories), MeFite Charles Stross (33 stories) and hundreds of other authors. If you don't know where to start, there's a list of recommended stories.
What Did We Call This Place When?
Native Names Projects by the Coeur d'Alene Tribe GIS Program and the Hawaii Board on Geographic Names are adding audio pronunciation guides to geospatial place-name datasets in several on-line mapping formats.
360 Cities -- if you can't be there, click here
360 Cities
contains over 6,000 fantastically shot virtual reality panoramas of 50+ cities worldwide. It's also accessible through Google Earth and Google Maps. Too immersive for you? Well, check out VeniVidiWiki to discover points of interest with videos, nature areas and parks, restaurants, hotels, and other travel-related stuff.
3D Map of Shanghai
3D map of Shanghai. Double Click a building and get a pic of the building
My Chinese isn't up to it but if you double click a building you seem to get a pic of the building and nearby flats for rent. The links on the lower left seem to take you the nearest McDonalds, Hospital, and KFC.
You start in the new area of Pudong, go west of the river (direction left) to find the older sites. The cranes on building sites is a nice touch.
If you want to see Shanghai from ground level try here:
City8
Shelta in San Francisco
I am moving to San Francisco in a little over a month and have been wanting to learn shelta (pavee/Irish Travellers language), but with the low number of speakers finding a tutor or even set of tapes/online audio files/book on how to write/read it so that I can learn the language has been almost impossible.
Spike Jones, master of the ... uhhh ... what is that he's playing, anyway?
40's-50's-Fun-Filter: glglglgl-prt-HIC! What soothing melodies do I hear? honk!honk!honk! Is it geese mating? Ibidi? Ibiduh. Ibidih? eauugh! No, it's Spike Jones and his City Slickers!
Dennis Potter
WithoutWalls
"This video, filmed in April 1994, records the final public words of the genius behind such films as Brimstone and Treacle, Pennies from Heaven, and Dreamchild. It's the last record of a man facing--with dignity, intelligence, and surprisingly good humor--death from cancer. Recorded as a television special by Britain's Channel Four, the documentary can be unsettling. Potter's inflamed hands can barely hold his ever-present cigarette (which he refers to as a "little tube of delight"), and he alternately sips champagne and swigs liquid morphine from an antique hip flask. But for those who have enjoyed Potter's wildly creative work--or those simply interested in the creative process itself--it's a fascinatingly funny glimpse into the mind of a master." (amazon)
Reuters: Bearing Witness
Through half a decade of war, a team of 100 Reuters correspondents, photographers, cameramen and support staff have strived to bring the world news from the most dangerous country for the press.
This is their testimony - bearing witness to ensure the story of Iraq is not lost.
Duke Bluebeard's Castle
You'll rarely see it staged, so might as well enjoy Bartók's lone opera, Duke Bluebeard's Castle in a beautifully filmed version on YouTube. Libretto in Hungarian, English. And a little introduction and analysis, with a particular eye toward the cryptic prologue.
Some papers
Some interesting papers by Shamsiddin Kamoliddin:
To the Question of Origin of the Name Hashimgird
To the Question of the Origin of the Samanids
NEW DATA ON THE BAZRS OF MEDIEVAL SAMARQAND
On the Origin of the place-Name Buxārā I found these mostly on Transoxiana.org
To the Question of Origin of the Name Hashimgird
To the Question of the Origin of the Samanids
NEW DATA ON THE BAZRS OF MEDIEVAL SAMARQAND
On the Origin of the place-Name Buxārā I found these mostly on Transoxiana.org
The 400 Million
The 400 Million 四萬萬人民 - China, 1938 (53 minutes / sound / black&white / 35mm) Directed: Joris Ivens. Camera: ROBERT CAPA. Parts:
1
2
3
4
5
6
"The Japanese aggression against China in 1937 forced the Chinese communists and Chiang Kai-shek's Kwomintang to take up the joint battle against their common enemy. With modern weapons the Chinese are pursuing their struggle behind enemy lines. This film shows all aspects of a war: the battle, the preparations, refugees, casualties and victims, the fear and distress, the human misery and the courage, and the land under fire."
Food For The Soul
Great Poets Of The 20th Century.
From The Guardian so Brit bias... Introduction, William Boyd on Siegfried Sassoon, John Banville on Seamus Heaney, Jeanette Winterson on Ted Hughes, Andrew Motion on Philip Larkin, Margaret Drabble on Sylvia Plath, Rowan Williams on WH Auden, Craig Raine on T.S. Eliot.
New prestigious Arabic award for fiction
IPAF (International Prize for Arabic Fiction) is a new prestigious $50,000 literary prize managed the Man Booker Prize in London and sponsored by Abu Dhabi's1 crown prince of the United Arabs Emirates. The inaugural winner was announced on March 10: Baha Taher's Sunset Oasis (shortlist). English translations appear to be unavailable although some are in the works. This is the first international prize for Arabic literature, and it has stirred up some passions.
Indigenous Australian Dance Ceremonies
Aboriginal dance (also known as a corroboree) helps indigenous Australians to interact with the Dreamtime through dance, music and costume. Many ceremonies act out events from the Dreamtime. Many of the ceremonies are sacred and people from outside a community are not permitted to participate or watch. However, there are many ceremonies we've been allowed to witness (here's one of my favourites). And there's plenty of related pictures available at the National Museum's website. Naturally, any indigenous Australians reading should note that these links may include images or names of people who may now be deceased.
Prussian black
One day in 1999, Alex Sabac el Cher, a retired German textile salesman opened his door to a historian who had a painting to show him and a few questions. Preußisches Liebesglück ("Prussian love bliss"), a 1890 painting of two lovebirds, an African officer of the German imperial army and his young red-headed bride, was perhaps an allegory of (color-)blind love, but also an actual moment of happiness in the Sabac el Cher family history, that started in 1836 with the gift of a young Nubian boy nicknamed August "Good morning" to an exiled princely murderer and became interwoven with German history. Bonus: First 10 minutes (in French) of a documentary about the Sabac el Cher.
Bah doo day, oh what a girl
Someone asked "What does it take before a song becomes a pop standard? Four generations? Five?
The Train Kept A Rollin' is a garage rock classic, but the original by Tiny Bradshaw (rec. 25-jul-1951 -- sax solo: Red Prysock) was played in a very different style. So who was Tiny Bradshaw? And what about all those covers?
The Train Kept A Rollin' is a garage rock classic, but the original by Tiny Bradshaw (rec. 25-jul-1951 -- sax solo: Red Prysock) was played in a very different style. So who was Tiny Bradshaw? And what about all those covers?
I&I Space
Each of the following MySpace Music pages features bios and/or photos and/or videos and/or miscellaneous related materials and/or up to six songs by each of the following old school Jamaican Reggae and/or dub artists: Alton Ellis, Toots and the Maytals, Jimmy Cliff, The Wailing Wailers, Big Youth, Dennis Brown, Mikey Dread, The Meditations, Leroy Brown, Mad Professor, Augustus Pablo, Ras Michael and the Sons of Negus, King Tubby, The Abyssinians, Everton Blender, Bunny Wailer, Prince Alla, Israel Vibration, Peter Tosh, Gregory Isaacs, Shinehead, Jah Ruby, Carlton Livingston, King Jammy, Duckie Simpson, I Threes, Judy Mowatt, Sly and Robbie, Barrington Levi, Yellowman, Delroy Williams, Wailing Souls, Earl "Chinna" Smith, Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace, Burning Spear, Max Romeo, Black Uhuru, Leroy Sibbles, Ijahman Levi and Earl Cunningham.
Deliberative Dictatorship?
Paradoxically, the power of the Chinese intellectual is amplified by China's repressive political system, where there are no opposition parties, no independent trade unions, no public disagreements between politicians and a media that exists to underpin social control rather than promote political accountability. Intellectual debate in this world can become a surrogate for politics—if only because it is more personal, aggressive and emotive than anything that formal politics can muster.China's New intelligensia
Prewar Blues Lyrics & Dylan Lyrics Concordances 'N Stuff
The things I like best about Michael Taft's Prewar Blues Lyrics Concordance, a subsection of T. G. Lindh's Web Concordances of Pre-War Blue Lyrics and Bob Dylan Lyrics, are the listings of the lyrics by singer: A - C, D - H, J - L, M - R and S - Y. And the nice thing about the blues lyrics is you don't need to ask for a log in and password. It 's all right there. Explore and enjoy.
What nonfiction about spies should I read?
What should I read to learn about espionage and World War II/start of the Cold War?
Don't stop talking.
Qantara
(meaning bridge in arabic) is a German based website looking to have dialogue with the Islamic world. Turkey is carrying out a radical revision of Islamic texts trying to define modern Islam. Through dossiers and dialogue and slideshows Qantara is helping this debate.
Back Porch Videos
Back Porch Videos
"Way before the internet and YouTube, there was public access cable television. And so...we proudly present these vintage clips from the 1980's alternative music video show, "Back Porch Video." Premiering January 28, 1984, this pioneering program was crewed and hosted by high-school students from the Dearborn/Detroit, Michigan area. Stay tuned for the ultimate best (and ultimate tacky) in retro-80's videos - from pop alternative, to hair bands, to rock and some of the most exclusive hardcore!!!"
Almost 700 videos of post punk brilliance.
"Sharkey's Day" by Laurie Anderson:
Rare Iggy and the Stooges - MC5 Footage:
"Beat Box" by Art of Noise:
"Kiss Me on the Bus" by The Replacements:
"Our Lips are Sealed" by Funboy Three:
"Let Me Be Your Pirate" by Nena:
"Rainy Season" by Howard DeVoto:
"Save it For Later" by the English Beat:
"Boys in the Street" by Eddie Grant:
"Too Loud" by Robert Plant Student Video
The Times Machine
The Times Machine allows easy browsing of every edition from 70 years (1851-1922) worth of New York Times in the original format. Very cool.
happy endings
Soukous Radio is an online radio station that plays/streams this energizing, joyous, African fusion music, known for its bright guitar sound and rumba/salsa beat. The name, Soukous, is derived from the French word secouer, to shake. A popular, recent Soukous video by two Ivory Coast singers, DJ Eloh and DJ Mix, The Bobaraba (which means “big bottom” in the local Djoula language), celebrates booty shaking.
Unlikely stories, likely
Poet, playwright, novelist, mural painter, experimentalist, illustrator; a “fat, spectacled, balding, increasingly old Glasgow pedestrian”; and perhaps “the greatest Scottish novelist since Sir Walter Scott,” Alasdair Gray has a new book out.
Inflicting a historical atlas on the world
Physicist Howard Wiseman has a hobby, history. On his website he has three history subsites, filled with lots of information: 1) Ruin and Conquest of Britain 2) 18 Centuries of Roman Empire 3) Twenty Centuries of "British" "Empires". Especially informative are his many maps. As he says himself: "Drawing historical maps of all sorts has been a hobby of mine since my mid teens. Now I can do it digitally, and inflict it upon the world!"
The People's Singer
"If Communists liked what we did, that was their good luck,"
said Lee Hays, founding member of the Almanac Singers. A fascinating portrait of one of the linchpins of the politically engaged folk movement of the '40s and '50s. Hays sang beside the more celebrated (and, on one important day in Bob Dylan history, infamous) Pete Seeger on such classic Almanac albums as Talking Union. [Listen here.]
delete what they end to all of the loop press
delete adult scroll conflict for
(or: 10 minutes of Perl scripting with Vista)
Jacques Brel et compagnie
YouTube user lightning49 has 160 of videos of French singers which she has subtitled with her translations. Her biggest collection is of Jacques Brel videos but there are also songs performed by George Brassens, Charles Aznavour, Edith Piaf as well as a smattering of other stuff. To start you off with a few songs here are three of my favorite songs by Brel, Je suis un soir d'éte, Le moribond and La valse à mille temp along with Charles Aznavour's La boheme, Edith Piaf's Milord and Georges Brassens' Les passantes.
Help in translating Bulgarian literature into English - then getting it published!
Any expert translators in the house? What is the best way to go about translating works of published fiction from Bulgarian into English? Any resources or answers regarding the practical elements of translation in general, or info for obtaining the legal rights to have any translated works published...?
More fun inside!
Glimpses of South Asia before 1947
Glimpses of South Asia before 1947
1,150 illustrated pages by the world's leading Ancient Indus Civilization scholars
774 photographs, postcards, lithographs, engravings, and archival film of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka before 1947
Cheika Rimitti, Mother of Raï
Head over to Cheikha Rimitti's MySpace page and listen to the first tune up on her player (starts when you open the page), called Saida. Whoa! Is that badass or what? Well, there's 5 other tunes of hers there for your listening pleasure, covering a wide swath of stylistic territory within the Algerian music tradition she was such an important part of. Yet another MySpace page pays tribute (with 4 more songs!) to this powerful singer, and you can also learn more about her at the Cheikha Rimitti website, which is in French, but with links like "Musique" and "Vidéos", you shouldn't have too much trouble with it. There's an informative English-language video biography of this "Mother of Raï", not to mention this performance footage (with those fantastic flutes!) of Saida.
Crumbling Paper - old, old comic strips
Crumbling Paper
is a collection of old comics. And I mean old, some from the early years of the 20th Century. There are strips from artists such as George Herriman, Rube Goldberg, Basil Wolverton and Gustave Verbeek. It has such strips as Katzenjammer Kids, Little Orphan Annie and Count Screwloose. Warning: Some of these comics feature racial caricatures, as was the unfortunate norm when the strips were drawn. Here is the collector, Steven Stwalley, on Race and Ethnicity in the Early Comics. [via Eddie Campbell]
Photo albums of German soldiers
Photo albums of German soldiers.
Fully scanned photos from the personal albums of German soldiers from the Second World War and the years preceding it.
People with a History
People with a History
is "an online guide to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans history." Ranging from the first stirrings of civilization to the modern day, People with a History gathers together original sources and academic articles dealing with queerness throughout history. To give you a feel for the wealth of material on the site, here are a few pages that caught my interest: The Vikings and Homosexuality, Coptic Spell: Spell for a Man to Obtain a Male Lover, an acount of a gay marriage ceremony described by Michel de Montaigne, But Among Our Own Selves (an 18th Century gay ballad), a chapter from The Life of St. Theodore of Sykeon, a 7th Century Byzantine monk and bishop, which mentions adelphopoiesis, or the rite of brothermaking, Wu Tsao, 19th Century Chinese lesbian poet, and finally Polari: The Lost Language of Gay Men.
John Wesley Harding Meets Lord Tennyson - Bob Dylan at the Isle of Wight August 31st, 1969
At the Isle of Wight Festival, Dylan was the only monster on the bill capable of attracting a monster of an audience. In refusing to play the Woodstock Festival and in then letting himself be talked into playing the Isle of Wight, Dylan in effect was telling England's counterculture: ''C'mon. Let's hold our own Woodstock.'' And so, on the Isle of Wight, a dot of land that certainly wasn't the easiest place in the world to get to, Dylan almost single-handedly proved an enticing enough attraction to collect an audience sometimes estimated to be as few as a 125,000 and sometimes as many as 250,000.My Dylan Papers: Part 2 The Isle of Wight
Another scrap from the late Al Aronowitz, the self-styled Blacklisted Journalist, and former Dylan courtier, recalling the only full concert Dylan gave solo or with the Band between 1967 and 1973 and sung in his Nashville Skyline voice, to boot, no less. And now you can have it all to yourself....
The last Eyak speaker passes
Chief Marie Smith Jones, 1919-2008.
"Eyak language dies with its last speaker." Or download the story directly as an .mp3 from Alaska Public Radio Network
.
Did poor women wear corsets?
16th-18th Century (Western Europe): Did working-class women wear corsets?
Further Than a Stone
Written by the mando player, Hamdog. I'm playing fiddle - everyone had a blast with this.
When child workers grow up
In the early twentieth century, photographer Lewis Hine took now-famous photographs of American child laborers. In the nearly hundred years since Hine took those photos, surely many viewers have wondered what became of the children he documented. Freelance historian Joe Manning has taken it upon himself to find out.
The Lost Archive
Ancient manuscripts lost and found, Nazis, academic backstabbing, religious fundamentalism - something for everyone in this story. (And count on Spengler for some controversial thoughts on what it all means)
Designers Fighting Nazis
"it turned out the abstract compositions in the posters contained hidden letters. (The one above, for example, displays the letter A.) Hung side by side on the streets, they spelled out N-A-Z-I. A public outcry followed, and within six weeks the company was ruined."
Can a designer punish a company that helped the nazis?
Maybe. Maybe not. (via swiss miss)
Ilha Formosa
"The Gerald Warner Taiwan Image Collection
is a photographic record of a US consul's impressions of urban and rural life in Taiwan under Japanese colonial rule. Totaling 340 photographs and postcards gathered by Warner between August 26, 1937 and March 8, 1941, these images provide a snapshot of Taiwan's hybrid culture of Chinese, Taiwanese, Austronesian, and Japanese influences." [Via]