Apparently a ten-year-old who put Microsoft Flight Simulator on his Christmas wish-list became the subject of a terrorism investigation. (Warning: I suspect that link will go stale in a week, so read it while you still can.) As always, The Register puts a snarky spin on the story.
Like many of you (I suspect), I don't use the paper telephone book. If I want to look something up, I go online. Yet every year I get a dozen different telephone books. I don't like them because a telephone book sitting on my front porch screams, "Rob this house! Nobody's home!" Besides, it's a waste of paper. So for the past few years I've been t...
This has got to be some sort of record for "Longest official name of a sponsored college football game": The Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl Presented by Bridgestone, which proclaims that "the Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl Presented By Bridgestone is Nashville's Holiday Tradition".
The FBI has apparently released a bulletin advising law enforcement officers to be on the alert for people with almanacs: They might be terrorists.
Even though Danish is impossible for me to pronounce, I do appreciate their stubborn resistance to decimalization. The number 71 is (I hope I get this right) "en og halvfjerdsindstyve", literally, "one and half-four-times-twenty", or more commonly, just "en og halvfjerds". (Those familiar with other Germanic languages recognize "half-four" ...
Today I read the privacy policy for Nuveen Investment Advisors. I like this part: We do not disclose any nonpublic personal information about you to anyone, except as permitted by law. "Except as permitted by law". How reassuring. Is it really necessary to have an official policy promising that that you won't break the law? And actually stating tha...
Of course my real goal in studying German and Swedish is eventually to have all of Denmark surrounded. (After Swedish, the next most likely nearby targets are Norwegian and Dutch.) All I know about Denmark I learned from Swedes. Well, if you don't count one Danish co-worker, who moved back to Denmark several years ago. The Swedes tell me, "The...
I'm looking over my Fidelity privacy disclosure statement, titled "Our commitment to privacy". Google is amazing: It found a copy online: Our Commitment to Privacy. Scroll down to How and Why We Obtain Personal Information, fourth bullet point: (Italics added.) The italicized phrase translates as "We will collect personal information in order ...
So an actor learns a foreign language and it's news: Actor Kingsley Masters Farsi Language. Meanwhile, tens of millions of people around the world learn a foreign language without any media coverage whatsoever. (And if you read the article: He didn't master Farsi. He mastered basic Farsi. Whatever that means.)
According to Aftonbladet, "Gathering Stockholm's finest news from overheard conversations on the street corner", En av fem stjäl sin julgran. ("One in five steals their Christmas tree.") This of course comes from a highly scientific online reader poll. The question is, "How do you get your Christmas tree?" and the response categories are (from...
