Scripturient

Does This Really Sound Like Sitting Bull?

2012-03-18 2021-08-28 Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Memes; Internet & Social3 Comments

Another quote meme going around on the Internet claims to be from Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotake), the famous Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux chief. A fascinating man in a difficult time, and a source of inspiration today. He was brave, intelligent and, from all accounts, wise. So when I read the quote below, I was torn. It’s a good comment, one that sounds like it should come from a wise man. But was that wise man really Sitting Bull? Or perhaps these words are from someone else. … click below for more ↓

Crystal crazy: self-professed psychics on Facebook

2012-03-17 2012-03-17 Atheism & Spirituality / Memes; Internet & Social / Science & Technology2 Comments

The Internet has provided a virtual continent for the colonies of faith healers, psychics, astrologers, UFO hunters, ghost and haunting sightings, crypto-zoologists, promoters of angels, spirits, demons, auras, and a wealth of pseudoscience and claptrap. In a culture where the critical thinking, quest of knowledge and skepticism that characterized the Enlightenment have given way to superstition and fundamentalism, the Net has proven a rich source of believers and followers for the charlatans and hucksters. Facebook and Youtube combine to make the Alexandria Library for the … click below for more ↓

Why the Republicans are bad for science

2012-03-14 2012-03-14 Atheism & Spirituality / Faith / Politics / Science & Technology3 Comments

Rick Santorum’s recent win in the Mississippi and Alabama primaries are frightening for anyone who values science and critical thinking. Santorum is not the only Republican who frightens me. They all do. But Santorum most of all. The idea of a right-wing, homophobic, fundamentalist, creationist running the biggest and most powerful nation in the world is scary enough to keep me awake at night. Santorum was the author of a 2001 amendment to the US education funding bill. His pro-creationist proposal was known as The … click below for more ↓

NASA latest target of creationist harridans

2012-03-13 2012-03-13 Atheism & Spirituality / Science & TechnologyOne Comment

A former NASA computer technician has filed an wrongful dismissal suit against his former employer, alleging he was, “discriminated against because he engaged his co-workers in conversations about intelligent design.” Engaged is a mild word. From what I’ve read in more balanced reports, he proselytized and his co-workers complained. The trial began Monday (documents here). David Coppedge admitted he, “…handed out (religious) DVDs on the idea while at work.” But that’s not all. According to this AP story, Coppedge was also involved in political campaigning … click below for more ↓

That’s not mass, it’s area. Poor science means bad reporting.

2012-03-11 2012-03-11 Language & Grammar / Science & Technology

It will come from space, be as massive as half a football field, have the explosive power to decimate hundreds of square miles of land and will hurtle perilously close to Earth. I cringed when I read this paragraph in a QMI story published in the London Free Press recently, titled “Rock of Ages: Killer Asteroid Likely to Pass in 2013.” So many mistakes in so few words. But it might be a great start for a Roger Corman B-flick script. Of course, “it” will … click below for more ↓

That squiggle cost taxpayers HOW much?

2012-03-10 2012-03-10 Canadian Politics / Collingwood / Language & Grammar / Municipal PoliticsLeave a comment

I read in the latest edition of the Collingwood Connection that: “Regional Tourist Organization 7 (is) now Bruce Grey Simcoe.” Were you even aware of Regional Tourist Organization 7 before that story? According to the Connection, The organization announced its new brand and logo on Thursday at the Bear Estate in Collingwood. Bruce Grey Simcoe is one of 13 regional tourism organizations across the province. Executive director Jeffery Schmidt said the group has been doing research and marketing over the past year in preparation for … click below for more ↓

Sorry the world didn’t end for you….

2012-03-08 2012-03-08 Atheism & Spirituality / Faith2 Comments

Howard Camping is one sorry person. Really. This week he apologized – again – for making an incorrect “doomsday” prediction last year that had hundreds, maybe thousands, of his co-religious wingnuts eagerly selling all their belongings in anticipation of the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI, October 21). Oops. World didn’t end, but then we knew it wouldn’t, didn’t we? Just like it won’t end this December simply because the Mayans ran out of room on their stone calendar for another long … click below for more ↓

Grim outlook for Canadian manufacturing

2012-03-07 2012-03-07 Canadian Politics / Collingwood / Municipal Politics / PoliticsLeave a comment

The outlook for Canadian manufacturing, warns the CIBC, will remain grim as long as a strong dollar keeps labour costs high, “deepening the hollowing out of the industrial heartland and boosting regional income inequality in the years ahead,” says the Huffington Post. The Canadian loonie looks good for shoppers who buy consumer and retail goods made outside Canada. Our import prices are actually 10% lower than they were a decade ago. Back in 2002, when the loonie was $0.62CAD to the $USD, our labour costs … click below for more ↓

Nope, this quote is not from Plato

2012-03-04 2022-04-23 Memes; Internet & Social5 Comments

“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” Seems like a wise thing to say. And I wish Plato had said it — it would have saved me a lot of time today. I spent many hours today putting together a quotation widget for this blog and trying to ascertain every quote I included came from a respectable, creditable source. Most were fairly easy to confirm, but others … click below for more ↓

English suffers the slings and arrows of outrageous punctuation

2012-03-04 2012-03-04 Language & GrammarOne Comment

There’s a chip wagon in town that offers “fresh cut fries.” When I see that sign, I always wonder what “cut fries” are, and how they compare with uncut fries. Does this chipster offer stale cut fries as well as fresh ones? The former library is becoming an old building. The sign in front tells us a “senior facility” is coming soon. Sad to see a relatively new building forced to age. A sign in a local department store advises me “video’s” are on sale. … click below for more ↓

The Drummond Report: economic disaster or salvation?

2012-03-03 2012-03-03 Canadian Politics / Collingwood / Municipal PoliticsOne Comment

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRToWKtrfCo&feature=related”] “It’s not all doom and gloom,” quips Rick Mercer in this video. “Drummond predicts the province could still turn things around, if it acts now, and no one gets sick, needs a job, or educates their children, for the next… ever.” The Drummond Report – from the Commission on the Reform of Ontario’s Public Services headed by economist Don Drummond – was released last week. It’s a sweeping, 529-page, brick-thick study of Ontario’s fiscal policies and structures, with 362 recommendations about how the province … click below for more ↓

You really think they’re, like, linguistic pioneers? OMG!

2012-03-01 2012-03-03 Arts / Language & GrammarLeave a comment

Are the Kardashians, Valley Girls or the Jersey Shores girls pioneers of language? Or just inept, barely literate, somewhat dim young women? I tend to believe the latter.

Not a John Lennon quote… just another bad meme

2012-02-28 2015-11-02 Arts / Memes; Internet & SocialOne Comment

Another unsourced, mis-attributed quote is going the rounds, found as are so many on Facebook, this one turning itself into another of those annoying, unsourced Internet memes that people love to share: “When I was five years old, my Mom told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I wrote down “happy”. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment and I told them they didn’t understand life.” … click below for more ↓

On translating Chaucer and the joys of Middle English

2012-02-26 2012-02-28 Arts / Books & Reviews / Language & Grammar / Personal Reminiscences / What I'm Reading Now6 Comments

In my last two visits to the nearby Chapters, I picked up from the bargain books section two recent, hardcover, versions of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. One is a new verse translation by Burton Raffel published in 2008, the other a prose translation by Peter Ackroyd, from 2009. These join the dozen or so other versions of Chaucer’s works I already have on my bookshelves: the Riverside Chaucer (third edition), several venerable Penguin editions (both original and translations), the New Cambridge edition, the Portable Chaucer, Hopper’s … click below for more ↓