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The Lost PowerPoint Slides (Storming the Bastille Edition)

By on July 13, 2007 in The Lost PowerPoints

Storming the BastilleEmmanuel Joseph “Radicabbot” Sieyès presents “What is the third estate” (circa January, 1789) –> slide 1

  • Everything
  • “Whole Enchilada”
  • In other words, the nation

Emmanuel Joseph “Radicabbot” Sieyès presents “What is the third estate” –> slide 2

  • Yes, it’s ironic that I’m saying the other estates don’t matter, even though I’m an abbot, and a member of the First Estate
  • But you have to admit I’m in the lower echelon of the First Estate
  • And I’m radical dude
  • Radical, dude!

Jacque Necker presents “Pink Slip Payback” (circa July 11, 1789) –> slide 2

  • Not enough to fire me from exalted position as Finance Minister
  • King has banished me to Basel!
  • I wouldn’t mind so much if there was some money to go with the banishment.

Lucie Simplice Camille Benoist Desmoulins presents “Don’t worry about my silly name and stutter, they’ve banished Necker, and it’s a bad thing!” (circa July 12, 1789) –> slide 1

  • To arms!
  • They’re going to kill us re-re-formers!

Gunter Essiggurkestabber presents “Yah, ve ran!” –> only slide

  • Royal-Allemand Cavalerie ist goot heavy cavalry
  • Ya, mostly German-speaking
  • And allergic to smelly Parisians
  • (Especially when they pelt us with paving stones.)

Bernard-René de Launay, Governor of the Bastille, presents “What the…?” –> slide 6

  • Um, the rioters seem to be in the outer courtyard
  • They don’t have much gunpowder
  • But the garrison is only 89 old toothless soldiers

Bernard-René de Launay, Governor of the Bastille, presents “What the…?” –> slide 7

  • I think I’ll open the gates to the inner courtyard
  • Save lives
  • But I’ve got a bad feeling about it…

Desnot presents “In the groin” –> slide 1

  • Yeah, Launay shouted “Enough! Let me die!”
  • Then he kicked me in the croissants!
  • Still, we shouldn’t have sawn off his head.

Storming of the Bastille: July 14, 1789, and kicked off the French Revolution.

Professor Quippy: Apparently, culture dictates your viewpoint

By on July 12, 2007 in Odd Science

Professor QuippyI don’t want to become Professor Quibble, but there appears to be a bit of a flaw in the research from the University of Chicago that suggests self-centered cultures have a narrower viewpoint.

According to the New Scientist:

In a new psychological experiment, Chinese students outperformed their US counterparts when ask to infer another person’s perspective. The researchers say the findings help explain how misunderstandings can occur in cross-cultural communication.

This might seem pretty devastating to the notion Western democracies are the haven of enlightened, non-biased thinking. However, when you read in a bit you discover that the research was done with a pretty biased mix of subjects: “Half of the volunteers were non-Asians who had grown up in the US, and the other half were native Mandarin speakers who had very recently emigrated from various parts of China.”

Um, you don’t suppose the recent immigrants to the US had been forced to infer other’s viewpoints on a pretty regular basis? Especially since they’ve been forced to engage with a culture not their own.

Perhaps this might be a more meaningful study if a similar experiment was done with subjects in the US and in China.

If they get the same results, then I’ll start thinking outside of the Quippy box a bit more.

New Scientist Story: Self-centered cultures narrow your viewpoint

Join The Skwib for the Storyblogging Carnival

By on July 12, 2007 in General Skwib

Every couple of weeks, a few storytellers get together and tell a few tales. Please join us on Monday, July 16th, or better yet, send along a story of your own.

You can use the blog carnival form here, or email Mark the details (author-at-markarayner-dot-com) Please include:

  • Story Title
  • Story URL
  • Trackback (if you got one)
  • Blog Name
  • Blog URL
  • Author’s name (optional)
  • Rating (G, PG, R, NC-17, etc.)
  • Word count
  • Blurb describing your story

There’s no restrictions on what your story can be about. It can be fiction, non-fiction, monkey-fiction, whatever! (Though we’ve noticed that short stories tend to get more readers.)

The Carnival of Satire (#78)

By on July 12, 2007 in Carnival of Satire

The Carnival of Satire #78We may be in the dog days of summer, but this edition of the Carnival of Satire is anything but a woofer. Though it might make you bark with laughter:

The Thuder Gott of Cyber Space (TM) notified us of this brilliant musical satire of “Tie a Yellow Ribbon” [This is a video, and you’ll have to grin and bear a bit of Barber Shop for 30 seconds before you get to the good stuff. But it’s worth the wait!]

Strap on your dosimeter! Jeremy has found Marie Curie’s Secret Diary. Yummy.

Madeleine Begun Kane has a Swiftian limerick: A Modest Dating Proposal For Anxious Guys.

Then again, the parents of all those anxious guys might have invested in Gay Insurance [also a video], via the Dirty Bitch Society

Jon Swift returns to the Carnival with his essay: David Vitter: Another Victim of Gay Marriage.

Rickey Reviews “Transformers”, and here’s a taste:

Rickey’s a big fan of Michael Bay’s work and make no mistake, this is his opus. What can we say? The man was born to make a movie about giant robots hitting each other.

Bobbarama has a satirical look at eating at Denny’s for a man who lives there: Steaking out my favorite booth. Continue Reading →

Future O-Rama!

By on July 7, 2007 in General Skwib

Future flying machineA few carnivals and other goodies for a lazy Saturday morning:

It looks as though Toulouse Le Grandfig is not the only one who has visited the Land of the Future. That is the focus of Paleo-Future, or rather, an unearthing of visions of the future from the past. There is lots of interesting stuff at this site, not least the wallpapers you can download based on this pic. (Which looks like something out of an Emily Chesley novel.)

For some humor, I’d recommend a visit to the Humor Carnival at Bobbaramma.com, where you can find a link to Papal Mojo.

And a new one, the Carnival of Music, which has a Carnival of Satire semi-regular, Riding with Rickey and his review of Paul McCartney’s latest effort.