Excuse me for being a pedant here. But the only reason the word "Farsi" has become current in English is because back in 50's, 60's, 70's neither the f_____g State Department nor the CIA knew that we had a perfectly good and venerable word in English for the language, i.e. "Persian." Listen, to anyone who knows the language (own horn tooting here) it sounds silly. It's completely mispronounced as it's employed in English, the accented syllable for one is just wrong. We don't say, "Do you speak francais?" (imagine it said with American accent, butcher the vowels, heavily glide the last syllable, clearly pronounce the "n"), and the same with any other language. Why? Because we already have perfectly good words for these languages in English. Calling it "Farsi" only highlights Western ignorance and it's exoticisation of the Eastern/Muslim/Oriental other. So why use it?
Az kasi ke nedane va nedane ke nedane....
or words to that effect (if memory serves)
The 13th century Persian Sufi poet Jalal al-Din Rumi was the original author of the poem-parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant in the form which is most widely known. It occurs in his massive and delightful Mathnawi (Persian pronuciation: Masnevi.) Previously it appeared in a different form in the influential scholar/Sufi/theologian/philosopher Abu Hamid Muhammad al-Ghazzali's (d. 1111) compendium the Ihya `Ulum al-Din (The Revivification of the Religious Sciences). The ultimate origin of the parable is a teaching story from the Buddhist Pali Udana.
Here's A.J. Arberry's translation (Though the standard translation, at least the one that most Persianists use is R.A. Nicholson's translation but while I have a hard copy I can't find the text on the net for convenient copying and pasting. Nicholson was Arberry's teacher. Incidentally, you'll search in vain to find a better translation of the Qur'an than Arberry's "The Koran Interpreted" despite it's use of archaisms-not too heavy though) with a few of my changes.
The Elephant in the dark, on the reconciliation of opposites
SOME Hindus had brought an elephant for exhibition and placed it in a dark house. Crowds of people were going into that dark place to see the beat. Finding that visual inspection was impossible, each visitor felt it with his palm in the darkness.
The palm of one fell on the trunk.
'This creature is like a water-spout,' he said.
The hand of another lighted on the elephant's ear. To him the beat was evidently like a fan.
Another rubbed against its leg.
'I found the elephant's shape is like a pillar,' he said.
Another laid his hand on its back.
'Certainly this elephant was like a throne,' he said.
The sensual eye* is just like the palm of the hand. The palm has not the means of covering the whole of the best.
The eye of the Sea is one thing and the foam another. Let the foam go, and gaze with the eye of the Sea. Day and night foam-flecks are flung from the sea: of amazing! You behold the foam but not the Sea. We are like boats dashing together; our eyes are darkened, yet we are in clear water.
* sensual meaning the eye of sense perception, sensual is Arberry's translation.
I think you've misread the parent post. He didn't concentrate on the movie vis a vis its purported theistic/philosophical content but rather on the fact that it makes the inhabitants of Zion the good guys. Given that Zion explicitly = Israel that creates serious issues for an Egyptian Arab audience.
First, this is a film censorship board that did this, not a bunch of clerics at al-Azhar.
Given the vast number of Western books translated into Arabic, many of which are published in Cairo, no, there isn't a problem with "someone inducing thought into their culture from the West"
Now, questioning the truth is another thing when you know that the truth in Arabic, al-haqq, is one of the most important of the "99 Names" of God.
Recently there have been a small number of cases in which terrorists using encryption have been in the news. In all the cases that I recall the terrorists generally did something like using the default Windows (not sure which version) encryption which is 56-bit or the like and it was broken. Once not even by the government but by the Wall Street Journal which obtained some encrypted hard drives in Afghanistan that they were able to crack.
Incidentally here's an interesting story about terrorists' use of encryption in Salon: The Encrypted Jihad
Incidentally, even the most conservative Muslim jurists and scholars, those who require the face veil to be worn, permit the face to be uncovered for the purpose of personal identification by legitimate authorities such as the police. See: For one example of such
There is a hadith (a saying of the Prophet Muhammad, or a report of his actions) which I believe is in Bukhari which makes it canonical that has the Muhammad pointing to the hands and the face as the two permissible areas to show uncovered.
Yes but the issue boils down to whether the driver's licence is:
1) A document attesting to one's ability in the eyes of the state to competently handle a motor vehicle. Or 2) A form of state-issued and certified identification.
If #1 obtains then what is the problem with using a non-photo driver's licence as some states do indeed issue (sometimes for reasons of religious, usually Christian, objections to being photographed). If the truth is that #2 is in fact the case, driver's licences having become de facto ID cards in the eyes of the state then shouldn't this requirement be upfront instead of piggybacking on the reasonable requirement that driver's be evaluated for competence and licenced accordingly?
I'm surprised that the interview made no mention of the use of encryption in telephone communications. Recently Bruce Schneier in his Crypto-gram newsletter pointed out that based on the US governments report on wiretapping that telephone encryption was rarely encountered and even when it was encountered it never presented a problem to the government in obtaining the cleartext of such encrypted communications.
It seems there is a real need both for strong, open-source cryptographic solutions for VoIp applications and some kind of open-source hardware for telephone communications. Open source because presumably the problem with current telephony encryption is that its closed source implementation has made it easy for the government to crack, as Schneier points out.
Since PZ once wrote an PGPfone for encrypted VoIP communications I'd really like to hear his opinion on this topic.
From a search on google for "Tucker Max" there's the cache of an entry in the urbandictionary.com that reads:
Asshole:
Tucker Max
Tucker Max is a big asshole
The entry is posted by "Katy" and if you click on that name you can see a link to another post of hers under the entry TMD: Tucker Max Drunk, although the post is not there. However, there are some other entries, such as:
How a man with a small penis and knows autofelattio, describes his own drunkenness
"wow dude, I'm such a loser. I got Tucker Max Drunk at my internship and got fired."
and posted by Tucker Hater:
A fictitious word used to build up ones own ego.
I am so full of myself, I will invent the phrase "Tucker Max Drunk" and spread it throughout the internet.
Re:CIA Humint - Sigint - Remote Sensing
on
IT at the CIA
·
· Score: 1
1998 India detonates five nuclear weapons
1998 Pakistan detonates a nuclear weapon
I sure hope EA comes out with the RoTK game for the Xbox in a timely manner. Last time with the Two Towers game (an awesome game, BTW) the Xbox version didn't come out for 5 months or so after it was out for the PS2. I also hope it's as good at least as the Two Towers game was.
Ok here goes again (next time I'll be sure to use "preview"):
1. The amulet's back story was given on the latest episode of Angel when he aquired it. Guess you just have to buy into the, ahem, synergy (I can't believe I just used that word) and watch both shows.
2. More like, let's cuddle.
*snip*
6. The spell Willow performed required that bitchin' ancient Slayer axe that Buffy only recently acquired. So that's why they didn't do it in "episode 3".
7. That wasn't an uber-vamp that kicked Buffy's butt but an all too human Caleb, juiced up by the First.
9. Amulet only recently aquired. See #1.
10. Spike "died" too. Though his soul was purified by the amulet.
12. Willow: So, what do we do now?
Buffy: Everything I always wanted to do but couldn't because the heavy burden of being The Slayer weighed on me and me alone.
That's so inaccurate it's not funny. Hey, it's not funny anyway.
1. The amulet's back story was given on the latest episode of Angel when he aquired it. Guess you just have to buy into the, ahem, synergy (I can't believe I just used that word) and watch both shows.
2. More like, let's cuddle.
*snip*
6. The spell Willow performed required that bitchin' ancient Slayer axe that Buffy only recently acquired. So that's why they didn't do it in "episode 3".
7. That wasn't an uber-vamp that kicked Buffy's butt but an all too human Caleb, juiced up by the First.
9. Amulet only recently aquired. See #1.
10. Spike "died" too. Though his soul was purified by the amulet.
12. Willow: So, what do we do now?
Buffy: Everything I always wanted to do but couldn't because the heavy burden of being The Slayer weighed on me and me alone.
Slashdot Mirror
Excuse me for being a pedant here. But the only reason the word "Farsi" has become current in English is because back in 50's, 60's, 70's neither the f_____g State Department nor the CIA knew that we had a perfectly good and venerable word in English for the language, i.e. "Persian." Listen, to anyone who knows the language (own horn tooting here) it sounds silly. It's completely mispronounced as it's employed in English, the accented syllable for one is just wrong. We don't say, "Do you speak francais?" (imagine it said with American accent, butcher the vowels, heavily glide the last syllable, clearly pronounce the "n"), and the same with any other language. Why? Because we already have perfectly good words for these languages in English. Calling it "Farsi" only highlights Western ignorance and it's exoticisation of the Eastern/Muslim/Oriental other. So why use it? Az kasi ke nedane va nedane ke nedane.... or words to that effect (if memory serves)
Here's A.J. Arberry's translation (Though the standard translation, at least the one that most Persianists use is R.A. Nicholson's translation but while I have a hard copy I can't find the text on the net for convenient copying and pasting. Nicholson was Arberry's teacher. Incidentally, you'll search in vain to find a better translation of the Qur'an than Arberry's "The Koran Interpreted" despite it's use of archaisms-not too heavy though) with a few of my changes.
The Elephant in the dark, on the reconciliation of opposites
SOME Hindus had brought an elephant for exhibition and placed it in a dark house. Crowds of people were going into that dark place to see the beat. Finding that visual inspection was impossible, each visitor felt it with his palm in the darkness.
The palm of one fell on the trunk.
'This creature is like a water-spout,' he said.
The hand of another lighted on the elephant's ear. To him the beat was evidently like a fan.
Another rubbed against its leg.
'I found the elephant's shape is like a pillar,' he said.
Another laid his hand on its back.
'Certainly this elephant was like a throne,' he said.
The sensual eye* is just like the palm of the hand. The palm has not the means of covering the whole of the best.
The eye of the Sea is one thing and the foam another. Let the foam go, and gaze with the eye of the Sea. Day and night foam-flecks are flung from the sea: of amazing! You behold the foam but not the Sea. We are like boats dashing together; our eyes are darkened, yet we are in clear water.
* sensual meaning the eye of sense perception, sensual is Arberry's translation.
I think you've misread the parent post. He didn't concentrate on the movie vis a vis its purported theistic/philosophical content but rather on the fact that it makes the inhabitants of Zion the good guys. Given that Zion explicitly = Israel that creates serious issues for an Egyptian Arab audience.
First, this is a film censorship board that did this, not a bunch of clerics at al-Azhar.
Given the vast number of Western books translated into Arabic, many of which are published in Cairo, no, there isn't a problem with "someone inducing thought into their culture from the West"
Now, questioning the truth is another thing when you know that the truth in Arabic, al-haqq, is one of the most important of the "99 Names" of God.
Incidentally here's an interesting story about terrorists' use of encryption in Salon: The Encrypted Jihad
Incidentally, even the most conservative Muslim jurists and scholars, those who require the face veil to be worn, permit the face to be uncovered for the purpose of personal identification by legitimate authorities such as the police. See: For one example of such
There is a hadith (a saying of the Prophet Muhammad, or a report of his actions) which I believe is in Bukhari which makes it canonical that has the Muhammad pointing to the hands and the face as the two permissible areas to show uncovered.
1) A document attesting to one's ability in the eyes of the state to competently handle a motor vehicle.
Or
2) A form of state-issued and certified identification.
If #1 obtains then what is the problem with using a non-photo driver's licence as some states do indeed issue (sometimes for reasons of religious, usually Christian, objections to being photographed). If the truth is that #2 is in fact the case, driver's licences having become de facto ID cards in the eyes of the state then shouldn't this requirement be upfront instead of piggybacking on the reasonable requirement that driver's be evaluated for competence and licenced accordingly?
Actually, it started much earlier, in Christian Byzantium among upper class women from whence it spread among Muslim women.
It seems there is a real need both for strong, open-source cryptographic solutions for VoIp applications and some kind of open-source hardware for telephone communications. Open source because presumably the problem with current telephony encryption is that its closed source implementation has made it easy for the government to crack, as Schneier points out.
Since PZ once wrote an PGPfone for encrypted VoIP communications I'd really like to hear his opinion on this topic.
What is this, Mad-Libs for trolls?
Uh, that would probably be his cousin.
Parent poster is defendant in Sreisand lawsuit. Mod parent up.
If I had mod points I'd mod you up. Good post.
The absentee ballots were largely admitted despite good evidence that many were cast after Election Day.
Asshole:
Tucker Max
Tucker Max is a big asshole
The entry is posted by "Katy" and if you click on that name you can see a link to another post of hers under the entry TMD: Tucker Max Drunk, although the post is not there. However, there are some other entries, such as:
How a man with a small penis and knows autofelattio, describes his own drunkenness
"wow dude, I'm such a loser. I got Tucker Max Drunk at my internship and got fired."
and posted by Tucker Hater:
A fictitious word used to build up ones own ego.
I am so full of myself, I will invent the phrase "Tucker Max Drunk" and spread it throughout the internet.
1998 India detonates five nuclear weapons 1998 Pakistan detonates a nuclear weapon
It says that nowhere in the Qur'an nor in the commpendia of the hadith. Nowhere. Ignoramus.
I sure hope EA comes out with the RoTK game for the Xbox in a timely manner. Last time with the Two Towers game (an awesome game, BTW) the Xbox version didn't come out for 5 months or so after it was out for the PS2. I also hope it's as good at least as the Two Towers game was.
Ok here goes again (next time I'll be sure to use "preview"):
1. The amulet's back story was given on the latest episode of Angel when he aquired it. Guess you just have to buy into the, ahem, synergy (I can't believe I just used that word) and watch both shows.
2. More like, let's cuddle.
*snip*
6. The spell Willow performed required that bitchin' ancient Slayer axe that Buffy only recently acquired. So that's why they didn't do it in "episode 3".
7. That wasn't an uber-vamp that kicked Buffy's butt but an all too human Caleb, juiced up by the First.
9. Amulet only recently aquired. See #1.
10. Spike "died" too. Though his soul was purified by the amulet.
12. Willow: So, what do we do now?
Buffy: Everything I always wanted to do but couldn't because the heavy burden of being The Slayer weighed on me and me alone.
That's so inaccurate it's not funny. Hey, it's not funny anyway. 1. The amulet's back story was given on the latest episode of Angel when he aquired it. Guess you just have to buy into the, ahem, synergy (I can't believe I just used that word) and watch both shows. 2. More like, let's cuddle. *snip* 6. The spell Willow performed required that bitchin' ancient Slayer axe that Buffy only recently acquired. So that's why they didn't do it in "episode 3". 7. That wasn't an uber-vamp that kicked Buffy's butt but an all too human Caleb, juiced up by the First. 9. Amulet only recently aquired. See #1. 10. Spike "died" too. Though his soul was purified by the amulet. 12. Willow: So, what do we do now? Buffy: Everything I always wanted to do but couldn't because the heavy burden of being The Slayer weighed on me and me alone.