Matthew Hogan http://matthew.aqoul.com/ en-us Copyright 2008 Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:55:20 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=3.2 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss My Kermit the Frog Nightmare I had a moral nightmare the other night while asleep. It was Kermit the Frog. He was singing that song about it not being easy to be green. And he sang it to its conclusion about acceptance, and the wonders of the ordinary.

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2008/03/post_1.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2008/03/post_1.html Rants- General Wed, 12 Mar 2008 23:55:20 -0500 Your American English Accent Divined For this side of the Atlantic people only, a test of American English regional accents. It came out correct for me, divining my Noo Yawk origins, although the results appear to be generically regional (N. East) in determining accent origin rather than very local. But for each of doze of y'all who may reckon to be fixin' to enjoy some soda pop (soda pap?) and do some regional American linguistics, pack yaw caah in the havid yad, and give it a try.

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2008/01/your_american_english_accent_d.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2008/01/your_american_english_accent_d.html American Culture Sat, 26 Jan 2008 14:11:51 -0500 Transcription Software q's: "Dragon Naturally Speaking" Although I never met a dragon, and certainly not one which speaks naturally, there is software with a related name. If anyone has thoughts, suggestions, recommendations, advice, offers, counteroffers, estoppel, promises, considerations, puns, etc. on "Dragon Naturally Speaking" or any other software where one can drone on verbally and have it automatically typed out, please share. I mean, is it reasonably time-saving, or is it like state of the art OCR namely, generating gibberish sprinkled with occasional words, but doing so in this case for the vocal chords, rather than printed text?

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2008/01/software_qs_dragon_naturally_s.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2008/01/software_qs_dragon_naturally_s.html Sun, 13 Jan 2008 22:41:55 -0500 Population Control Propaganda Slipped Casually In In the middle of a Washington Post story on China now experiencing a population increase, in part due to the erosion of its totalitarian forced one-child policy, this paragraph of population control propaganda slips in without even the decency of legitimate weasel words like "many say" or "officials say" or "is widely held":

For more than three decades, China has imposed tight controls on population growth. By limiting how many people compete for scarce resources, the country has been able to lift millions out of poverty.

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/12/population_control_propaganda.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/12/population_control_propaganda.html Economic Issues Sat, 15 Dec 2007 20:57:12 -0500 More Brains Equals Less Happiness (with related Jumbled Thoughts on anti-Bush/anti-Jock sentiment) Too little time to ramble appropriately. But here's a jumble of semi-related issues on nerd alienation, anti-Bushism and anti-jockism. First, the comments to this posted article on growing up brainy but inevitably unhappy are interesting, even touching (the comments are more interesting than the article). Though myself a fully formed non-jock last-picked-for-any-team somewhat "brainy" nerd, I nevertheless experienced less trauma than these folks did with "jocks" and other less eggheady types. Perhaps because the school environments I had were not too pro-jock, and were definitely pro-nerd. (That didn't stop all of the usual expected adolescent brutality and social ineptness coming my way, however). Then, I jump below to a bunch of slightly related half-formed theories here, going from the social exclusion of nerds to a distantly related political one: a working theory that alot of anti-Bush personal (not political) sentiment is fundamentally anti-jock resentment by nerds. To which discussion I append an appreciation of jocks.

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/12/issue_jumble_nerd_alienation_a.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/12/issue_jumble_nerd_alienation_a.html Egghead Stuff Sun, 09 Dec 2007 11:53:47 -0500 Need Gadget-Geek Info: Vinyl to Silicon I am hinting around for a Xmas present: a device that has a turntable, a CD thing, and the necessary software so that one can transfer the contents of the old vinyl record to a CD. I saw this device in a consumer-ish outlet (did not get product name); does anyone know of the worthwhileness/reasonable pricing (USA) of such products or particular models or alternatives.? I imagine there are also legal issues of reproduction, but that's for another day.

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/12/need_gadgetgeek_info_vinyl_gon.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/12/need_gadgetgeek_info_vinyl_gon.html Random Personal Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:12:59 -0500 The Ultimate Self-Fulfilling Prophecy I think I stumbled on the ultimate example of a self-fulfilling prophecy the other day. Go to a social event with your spouse and introduce him or her as "my future ex-[wife/husband]". No, I didn't do or have this done to me. Yet.

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/11/the_ultimate_selffulfilling_pr.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/11/the_ultimate_selffulfilling_pr.html American Culture Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:02:20 -0500 Kennedy Assassination, Nixon, and Coincidence On this anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, people argue coincidences and conspiracies (pssst- there wasn't any, Oswald was all alone). But there is a story about that day that is funny in its own right, probably true, and might give rise to a nice reflection on coincidences. Richard Nixon told this account to Larry King; I cannot find it online but I recall it from a book. The story is quite plausible even if Nixon wasn't always so.

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/11/kennedy_assassination_nixon_an.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/11/kennedy_assassination_nixon_an.html Egghead Stuff Thu, 22 Nov 2007 12:27:37 -0500 Beowulf ynne thae fylmmen? Hwaet tha fukkke? Godes yrre baer. That great hard-of-hearing epic, Beowulf, the one that actually begins with a shout of "WHAT!" (spelled Hwaet!), has made it onto the big silver mead-hall screen. A great line from one review says "as you may remember from Cliff's Notes. . . .", but your humble servant actually has read the thing in its original, um, English and always wondered how, aside from some good monsters, this drama-less one-dimensional Dark Age gangsta rap could possibly be made into a good story. I haven't seen the film yet, but I shouldn't have been surprised at Hollywood's ingenuity in that area: they made stuff up.

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/11/hwaet_thae_fukke_beowulf_in_th.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/11/hwaet_thae_fukke_beowulf_in_th.html American Culture Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:35:44 -0500 Safe from Pakistani worries This just in on Pakistan: "Musharraf’s leadership is threatened by an increasingly defiant Supreme Court . . . ." Well, glad we don't face any dangers like that here in the USA.

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/11/safe_from_pakistani_worries.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/11/safe_from_pakistani_worries.html Sat, 03 Nov 2007 23:08:34 -0500 Petty thoughts: She's not worth it An "oldie" of sorts, like me the listener, on the radio. Tom Petty's Listen To Her Heart. And the opening line that I hated then and now. So I just have to say this these many years later.

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/10/petty_thoughts_shes_not_worth.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/10/petty_thoughts_shes_not_worth.html American Culture Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:15:52 -0500 Need Arabic language info And speaking of songs, can someone tell me if this is a Christian hymn and roughly what is it saying? The singing is pretty. And I assume, despite the name, the site has nothing to do with George Bush.:-)

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/10/need_arabic_language_info.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/10/need_arabic_language_info.html Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:14:38 -0500 Make that song stop! Would those young kids out there here in the USA please get that Delilah song off the radio?! (Actually it's kind of nice, sort of like an "unplugged" version of "Last Train to Clarksville", and has a cool background story, but enough already, that adolescent poetry and singing gets to my old age.)

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/10/make_that_song_stop.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/10/make_that_song_stop.html Rants- General Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:21:02 -0500 Islamic Spain Comes to DC, October 10 For those in the US capitol area, Wednesday October 10 starting 8:30 in the evening (meaning food is OK for the umma-fied), the restaurant Busboys and Poets at 2021 14th Street, is doing a film screening of CITIES OF LIGHT: THE RISE AND FALL OF ISLAMIC SPAIN. The producer Alexander Kronemer will be there. (UPDATE/CORRECTION: One can NOT tell by his very non-Muslim name how much time, effort, and money the Islamic community regularly spends on telling its own story as it appears he is indeed Muslim unlike my previous assumption (thanks, commenter Ahem); apologies to Mr Kronemer and the umma for my undue, though normally well-justified, cynicism in this area.*) Below the break is more detail.

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/10/islamic_spain_comes_to_dc_octo.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/10/islamic_spain_comes_to_dc_octo.html MENA Culture Fri, 05 Oct 2007 23:40:41 -0500 Noisy Desperation: The Fading Real Estate Market Quiet desperation? Not on a road leading out of a major metropolis and into the suburbs. As endless commuter cars inched outward in a slow-moving stream at the end of the day, a haggard-looking woman held up a sign with an arrow pointed down a side street. The sign read: Buy My House, You'd Be Home Already. It wasn't long ago in the same area that one had only to put a mere broker sales-listing out and hordes of buyers and agents were breaking down the door. Now it is self-help. Caveat speculator.

]]> http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/09/noisy_desperation_the_fading_r.html http://matthew.aqoul.com/2007/09/noisy_desperation_the_fading_r.html American Culture Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:04:53 -0500