Soviet submarines and CIA planes

In the 80’s , Sweden was plagued by Soviet submarines. Now it seems there is a rash of CIA planes.

“CIA Plane in Sweden”
Helsingfors

A Hercules airplane that landed in Helsingfors May 16, 2003 and the next day flew on to Stockholm “was a CIA plane.” So writes the Finnish Borgåbladet in its Wednesday edition.

According to the newspaper, the plane, which was seen at the Helsingfors-Vanda airport, is registered with the number N8213G with a company in Great Falls, Montana. The next day, the plane “was seen” in Stockholm, writes Borgåbladet, which does not explain how the airplane can be tied to the CIA.

If the information is correct, it means there had been another layover of an airplane with possible ties to the American spy organization.

TT has recently reported on two such layovers, at Arlanda and Örebro in June of 2002, and at Sturpu in September of this year. According to US media reports, the plane that landed in Örebro has transported enemy combatants to the military base in Guantánamo, Cuba on several occasions.

Swedish Television has reported on yet another airplane connected to the CIA and Guantánamo. That report was of a stop at Arlanda in April of 2003, but that plane was a Gulfstream and so hardly the same plane that Borgåbladet is reporting.

The words, “Prescott” were written on the Hercules plane that landed in Helsingfors, reports the newspaper, which points to the American investigative reporter Wayne Madsen. He is a former security officer who claims that the firm Prescott Support is one of the companies responsible for transporting prisoners through Europe.

According to the newspaper, Madsen says that the prisoners are interrogated while in the air, so that they are not under any country’s laws or international conventions. He also says that the airplanes can be flying prisons. Madsen has written several books that criticize the American war in Iraq.

TT-FNB
11/23/2005
http://www.gp.se/gp/road/Classic/shared/printarticle.jsp?d=306&a=244614

Christian media bias

This little article by the AP on a course in creationism and intelligent design and at the University of Kansas shows a media bias, but not in the way most evangelical Christian’s claim. The whole story presents opponents of intelligent design as reactionary and supports the “teach the controversy” mythology.

First, let’s look at the headline:

College course seeks to debunk intelligent design

Using the verb seeks in there implies that the debunking outcome is in question. They may or may not succeed in actually debunking intelligent design. Compare their headline with an alternative without seeks:

College course to debunk intelligent design

Here the outcome of debunking is not in question.

Another thing about this headline is that it raises a question in the reader’s mind, “why are they trying to debunk intelligent design.” The answer to this question is the frame that the article hangs on. The article  wastes no time in getting to the point.

"The KU faculty has had enough," said Paul Mirecki, department chairman.
"Creationism is mythology," Mirecki said. "Intelligent design is mythology. It's not science. They try to make it sound like science. It clearly is not."

The faculty are immediately set up as reactionaries—they’ve “had enough.” And their mode of attack is name calling. The article doesn’t follow through on the Mirecki quote to explain why he feels intelligent design is not science. Rather, after some background on the situation in Kansas, they go into a brief synopsis of the opponents view:

Critics say intelligent design is merely creationism -- a literal reading of the Bible's story of creation as the handiwork of God -- camouflaged in scientific language as a way to get around court rulings that creationism injects religion into public schools.

This is misleading. While it’s true that many opponents of intelligent design feel that it is directly linked to creationism, they do not equate the two. And the rationale for not teaching intelligent design in the science classroom has nothing to do with creationism. It has to do with the fact that it is bad science.

Then, of course, the article gives “equal time” to the proponents of intelligent design:

"To equate intelligent design to mythology is really an absurdity, and it's just another example of labeling anybody who proposes (intelligent design) to be simply a religious nut," Calvert said. "That's the reason for this little charade."

Proponents of intelligent design can portray themselves as aggrieved parties. And the defense carries weight because there is no context to evaluate it in. From the way things are presented in the article, it’s simply a controversy. And the proponents of intelligent design come off as the rational parties and the opponents as reactionary.

Maybe you can tell that I am currently reading Lakoff’s Don’t think of an elephant. I might have more to write about it. Right now, I’m about halfway through. There is some stuff I agree with and some I don’t. But this article seems to me like a perfect example of, a perhaps unconscious, framing of an issue by a supposedly “impartial” reporter. It’s not surprising then that Dilbert can’t seem to get his mind around this issue.

Carl you're turning carl!

Ok, I didn’t want to do this, but Eric made me. Now he might dazzle you with his talk of “offglide-like velarized laterals”, but don’t be fooled (again). I have yet more evidence that orange, among other words, has to be pronounced with an [ɑ:] instead of [ɔ:]. This time the evidence comes from the classic 1964 zombie horror (with an [ɑ:]) film, Zombies. Just before Halloween, I picked up a DVD of this one—a double feature with Scared to Death—for a dollar at my local “dollar store”. If you can find it, get it. This series of DVDs was put out under the “Family Value Collection”. How cool is that?
Zombies was filmed in Florida (with an [ɑ:]), and stars the fetching Betty Hyatt Linton as “Coral Fairchild”. That’s Coral, also with an [ɑ:]. In fact sadly for poor Coral, everyone pronounces her name as a monosyllable, so I was thinking, “WTF a woman named Carl?!?” But it just goes to prove once again, that anyone who pronounces orange with an[ɔ:] deserves to be eaten by radioactive zombies from the carribean.
So don’t listen to Eric, or I’ll eat your skin!

Coincidence?

A swedish automatic blogger blogged me.

Roger on that orange

Back in August, Eric, in a comment to a post on Phonoloblog about vowels, mentioned that I have the best argument for pronouncing the o in words like orange and Florida with an [a:] rather than an [ɔ:]. As far as I can tell most Americans are like Eric in using the [ɔ:] pronunciation in these words. It’s only a select few of us east coasters that use the much more correct [a:].

Eric summarizes the argument quite nicely:

By the way, the title of this strip is also worth commenting on. My grad school classmate Ed Keer and I used to argue about the pronunciation of the underlined vowel orange (and other words, like Florida): I (from around San Francisco) have something like [ɔ:], Ed (from around Philadelphia) has something like [a:]. Ed had the best argument for the correctness of his pronunciation, though: the following knock-knock joke works better if you pronounce orange with [a:]:
Knock-knock. Who’s there? Banana. Banana who? Knock-knock. Who’s there? Banana. Banana who?
[… this goes one for a little while longer, the number of times being inversely proportionate to your age or directly proportionate to the amount of alcohol you’ve imbibed.]
Knock-knock. Who’s there? Orange. Orange who? <b>Orange you glad I didn’t say “banana” again?</b> [I have to disagree with Eric’s use of again here. It totally reduces the punchline of the joke by explaining too much. I would leave it out—Ed]

I totally thank Eric for giving me the shout out. But, I’ve been keeping an even better argument up my sleeve: The greatest rock band ever uses my pronunciation. If you listen closely to The Who’s Won’t Get Fooled Again you will clearly hear in the line: The morals that they worshipped will be gone that Roger* pronounces moral with an [a:]. Case closed.
* I am assuming it’s Roger singing this. If not, don’t write in to tell me that it’s Pete. I just don’t care that much.

CNN anchor makes mistake---shows superiority of new media

You can read all about it here, here, and here and probably a million other sites.

It's pretty clear some people don't like the term African American. I don't know why. It seems to me like a pretty straightforward name for a group of people. It has the advantage of enjoying wide support in the community it is supposed to label.

The only problem I see is that it has too narrow a focus. It doesn't refer to a race, but to a group of people of a certain race in a certain geographic area. So surprise, surprise, people get confused about when to use it. And some people end up using it "wrongly".

I can imagine, given enough time, that the it will undergo semantic broadening and eventually come to mean the race. Then we can count on pedants to complain ala "why do we park in a driveway and drive in a parkway?" I can't wait for that!

DIlbert is god

I never really got Dilbert, but this one is fucking funny.

New music from the old world

I've got 3 CDs that are currently kicking my ass. They're on constant shuffle on the old iPod. And they're all from countries of my ancestors, so i thought I'd share them with you.

Denmark
The Ravonettes--Pretty in Black: This Danish guy/girl pair is one part Jesus and Mary Chain and a buncha parts The Everly Brothers. They even do a version of "Leader of the Pack" on this CD.

Finland
22 Pistepirkko--Drops & Kicks: My friend Martin (see below) told me about these guys 12 years ago and did I listen? No. Of course not. But now I have and I almost can't stop. Imagine the Ramones are Finnish guys who are a little more catholic (with a lower c) and without a clear command of English. Sample lyrics:
I don't want to see you watch me slow and fading
I don't want to see you wear nothing black but leather

Around and around and around we go
I was not so good at school
http://www.22-pistepirkko.net/

Sweden
Martin McFaul--Maybe you and me (ep): OK Martin is my friend so I have to like him. He's been compared to Nick Drake but I think he's more like Neil Young. Not the Neil Young who sings about riding Harleys and the heroes of flight whatever, but the Neil Young of Transfomer Man and Pocahontas.
http://www.imperialrecordings.se/martinmcfaul/

You can get the Ravonettes in your local record conglomerate, but the other two you'll have to get online in mail order. Enjoy!

Var var det jag Laden

I’m not sure what’s going on in the old country. They want to put a priest in jail for reading the bible (hyperbole) and they’re publishing books of dirty jokes by children.

Children’s jokes—No game for Brio
“We cannot get behind a book with strong sexual humor”
The toy chain Brio has put the brakes on a book that was going to be sold in its 96 stores.
The book contains jokes by children and Save The Children, Sweden, The Nordiska museet, and the milk producer Arla are among its creators.
The jokes were sent in by children from all over the country, responding to a requet found on milk cartons from Arla.
One of the jokes inspired the title of the book, “What is the name of Osama’s lost brother? Where did I put that” [The word Laden sounds like the Swedish words la den or ‘put it’—Tr.]
The book can be found in Brio’s catalogue which will go out to 1.5 million households throughout the country in a few days. But Brio will not sell the book, and Britt-Marie Dierk, a teacher at the Ribbyberg school in Västerhaninge, doesn’t understand why.
“I am extremely surprised and a little disappointed for the children. This book has been very big for us. Nobody has complained, everything has been just fine,” She told aftonbladet.se.

“Doesn’t fit our demographic”
Britt-Marie’s 5th grade students have done all the illustrations for the book, which Brio thinks is appropriate for High School students.
“Some of the jokes are for teenagers. There is strong sexual humor that we cannot condone,” says Jessica Nyström, PR Chief for Brio. She also points out that the company completely supports Save the Children.
“We are sure the book is very funny. We do not want to detract from it. But it doesn’t fit our demographic, which is primarily children up to 5 years old,” she says.
Peter Norrbohm, who was the project lead for the book thinks that Brio’s concerns are blown out of proportion.

“Got cold feet”
“My guess is that someone is acting as taste police and they got cold feet,” he says.
“The book doe shave a number of jokes with sexist and rasist content, but they are very mild and they have been well edited by Ulf Palmenfelt a folklore researcher.”
Peter Nrrbohm also thinks that chlidren’s humor has to be controversial.
“Children’s humor mirrors what is controversial in the world of grown ups. You can’t deny it,” he says.
3,000 copies of the book are now on sale, including in the bookstore at the Nordiska museet and Save the Children, Sweden’s Web page.
But not at Brio stores, which Peter Norrbohm thinks will only raise interest more.
“The customers that have seen the book in Brio’s catalogue will of course be disappointed when the hear ‘we don’t sell it, you’ll have to go to a bookstore’. That’s like saying ‘no, we don’t sell child pornography, but you can go next door’,” he says.


Some of the offending jokes
--Why do all blondes have bruises around their bellybuttons?
--I don’t know.
--Blonde boys aren’t very smart either.

A black man had been to the acupuncturist. The doctor accidently left two needles in his forehead, so when he got on the bus, an old lady stared at him.
--You’ve never seen a black man before? He asked.
--Sure, said the lady. But never a remote control one.

What did the dick say to the condom?
Cover me, I’m going in.

[I don’t get this one—Tr.]
--What’s you’re name?
--Erstin.
--Are you horny then?
--Yeah, a little sometimes.

There were two pieces of shit playing soccer. Along came some diarrhea and asked to play too.
--No, said the shit, this game is only for hard guys.

A priest and a raggare sat next to each other on the train. The priest opened up his bible and read. The raggare read his porno mag. After a while, they swapped. After the priest had looked at the porno for a bit, he asked:
--what is a dick?
--It’s a tie, said the raggare.
--What does ‘on the rag’ mean?
--That’s when you get red in the face, answered the raggare.
--But what the heck is group sex? The Priest wondered.
--That’s when everyone laughs and has fun together, said the raggare.
The next day the priest got on the bus and saw the bus driver’s tie.
--What a nice dick you have, said the priest.
All the passengers began to laugh.
--Are you having group sex? Asked the priest. Can I join in?


Karin Henriksson
11/10/2005

http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/nyheter/story/0,2789,727688,00.html

Hate crime or free speech?

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Talking out your adenoids

I was surprised to see a piece in the November 14 New Yorker Talk of the Town section on linguistics. I was less surprised to see that it was about William Labov. And even less surprised to see that the reporter completely mucked it up.

Here are some choice quotes.

Apart from the adenoidal “oi” sound in words like “bird” (boid), which has largely disappeared from the area, Brooklynese has remained unchanged for the past fifty years.

There is a tiny portion of eastern New Jersey, along the edge of the Hudson, where you can hear Brooklynese, but by the time you’re in Paterson you’re well into what Labov calls the Jersey “nasal system.”

I don't understand why reporters can't or won't use the accepted scientific terminology for describing speech sounds. It's not like it's incredibly difficult jargon. Now, I admit to only vaguely knowing where the adenoids are, but I'm nearly 100% certain they have nothing to do with the production of the "oi" sound in any dialect. And what the hell is "nasal" about New Jersey's dialect? It's not like New Jerseyans use nasal vowels more than the average American. Maybe they gravitate to words with the nasal consonants in them.

Stop teaching the controversy

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis does more harm than good. I mean think about it. This is the mudded thinking that brings us the use of opportunity for problem. This is the same bunk that brings us pc language and the stupid his/her crap not to mention all the inane chatter about how this or that exotic language doesn’t have a word for or has kajillions words for something or other.

That is why I’m calling for a constitutional amendment to ban the teaching of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. Please join me in mailing your representatives about this important issue. We must act now before another liberal art student is harmed.

More changes

So in addition to having a new baby, two months ago I also got a new job. I’m no longer commuting into Manhattan on the terror train. Now I cruise the highways and byways of Nova Jersey.

Overall the commute is hella less stressful. But, I miss the walk. Now I’m in the car from start to finish. And you know ”the more you drive the less intelligent you become.”

The upside is that my drive takes me down route 287 (that's the 287 for you west coasters) which skirts the New Jersey Highlands. If all you know about New Jersey is the industrial parks around Newark or the Paramus strip malls, you need to check out the highlands. Right by my work is the Tourne Mountain, so on nice days I can sneak out at lunch for a real climb. And the highlands are home to NJ’s own Ramapough Mountain People—an all purpose boogey man for the white folks in Bergen county.

I wish I worked for Bill O'Reilly

Cause I would sit at my desk all day listening to Charles Aznavour.

Idiote je t'aime,
Idiote je t'aime...