Professor Wikipedia

A nice way of criticising some of the world's most famous online encyclopedia: Wikipedia!

Happy New Year!!! (bis)

As I wrote a year ago: "It is customary to say 'Happy New Year' to everyone on 1st January, so now it's done (it was quick!), I can go on with my usual silly things I found.

Let's have a look at what will happen this year:"

2009 has been designated as the:

• International Year of Astronomy.
• International Year of Natural Fibres. [SL: I'm not surprised after the International Year of the Potato.]
• International Year of Reconciliation. [SL: I'm not sure it'll be successful.]

Predicted events:

• January 1 - Slovakia adopts the euro and becomes the 16th member of the Eurozone.
• January 20 - Inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the United States.
• January 26 - Annular solar eclipse.
• February 12 - Darwin Day, the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin. Events are already being planned at the London Natural History Museum. [SL: I doubt Americans will celebrate this…]
• February 13 - The Unix time number reaches 1234567890 seconds at 23:31:30 UTC. [SL: funny.]
• February 22 - The 81st Academy Awards will be held at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. [SL. For the first time since 2003 BeTV will broadcast the ceremony so I won't miss it this time!]
• June 4-7 - The European Parliament election 2009 will take place, the exact date varies depending on country. [SL: really nice of 'our' European representative to organise this election while millions of students are taking exams… I also predict that we'll have to go to the polls for the Belgian federal election.]
• July 1 - Sweden takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union from the Czech Republic.
• July 22 - Total solar eclipse. The longest lasting total solar eclipse of the 21st century.
• September - The Burj Dubai in Dubai, UAE will be completed. It is already the tallest man-made structure ever built. [SL. It's currently more than 800 metres high!]

And, sadly, as I wrote a year ago:

"Furthermore, the Iraq war will continue, as well as the War in Afghanistan, the Conflict in Darfur, and also the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2008: an summary

So today's New Year's Eve, which means it's time for looking back at what happened in 2008, don't you think? To help me remember all that I rely on the Wikipedia entry on 2008. I just highlight some events, or else this blog post would be filled by reports on suicide bombings and other wars, coups and mass killings…

2008 was designated as:

• International Year of Planet Earth.
• International Year of Languages.
• International Year of the Potato.
• International Year of Sanitation.
• International Year of the Frog.
• European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.
• The Year of the Rat (by the Chinese calendar)

I hadn't even noticed all that. I even think that the "International Year of the Frog" deserves being mentioned for its lack of concern from the media.

• January 1 - Cyprus, Malta, adopt the euro.
• January 21 - Stock markets around the world plunge amid growing fears of a U.S. recession, fueled by the 2007 subprime mortgage crisis. [SL: "Premonitions? Premonitions?"]
• February 19 - Fidel Castro announces his resignation as President of Cuba, effective February 24.
• February 24 - Raúl Castro is unanimously elected as President of Cuba by the National Assembly.
• March 29 - Presidential and parliamentary elections are held in Zimbabwe.
• April 8 - Privy Council of Sark dismantles its feudal system to comply with the European Convention on Human Rights. and the first elections under the new law will be held in December 2008 and the new chamber will first convene in January 2009. [SL: WTF?]
• June 12 - Ireland votes to reject the Treaty of Lisbon, in the only referendum to be held by a European Union member state on the treaty.
• June 27 - President Robert Mugabe is reelected with 85.5% of the vote in the second round of the controversial Zimbabwean presidential election. [SL: Come on…]
• June 27 - After 3 decades as the Chairman of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates steps down from daily duties to concentrate on philanthropy.
• July 2 - Íngrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages are rescued from FARC by Colombian security forces. [SL: Hearing non-stop news reports about the rescue and so on completely drove me crazy!]
• August 8–24 - The 2008 Summer Olympics take place in Beijing, China.
• August 17 - Michael Phelps surpasses Mark Spitz in Gold Medals won at a single Olympics, winning 8.
• September 10 - The proton beam is circulated for the first time in the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator, located at CERN, near Geneva, under the Franco-Swiss border.
• September 15 - Following negotiations, President Robert Mugabe and opposition leaders Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara sign a power-sharing deal, making Tsvangirai the new Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.
• October 3 - Global financial crisis: U.S. President George W. Bush signs the revised Emergency Economic Stabilization Act into law, creating a 700 billion dollar Treasury fund to purchase failing bank assets. [SL: The beginning of the end for the world economy…]
• October 9 - Global financial crisis: Following a major banking and financial crisis in Iceland, the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority takes control of the 3 largest banks in the country: Kaupthing Bank, Landsbanki, and Glitnir.
• November 4 - United States presidential election, 2008: Barack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States and Joe Biden is elected the 47th Vice President. Barack Obama becomes the first African-American President-elect.
• November 22 - Frozen water is found on Mars. [SL: Useful when the Americans bring their Coke or Pepsi on the red planet…]
• December 6 - Riots spread across Greece after a 15-year-old boy is shot dead by a special guard of the Greek Police.
• December 10 - The Channel Island of Sark, a British crown dependency, holds its first fully democratic elections under a new constitutional arrangement, becoming the last European territory to abolish feudalism.
• December 16 - Ruins of an ancient Wari city are discovered in northern Peru. [SL: And what about the crystal skulls?]
• December 31 - An extra leap second (23:59:60) is added to end the year. The last time this occurred was in 2005.

These people passed away:

• January 11 - Edmund Hillary, New Zealand mountaineer, explorer, and philanthropist, conqueror of Mount Everest (b. 1919)
• January 22 - Heath Ledger, Australian actor (b. 1979) [SL: a dreadful loss.]
• February 10 - Roy Scheider, American actor (b. 1932) [SL: "We're gonna need a bigger boat."]
• February 13 - Henri Salvador, French singer (b. 1917)
• March 19 - Arthur C. Clarke, English author, inventor, and futurist (b. 1917) & Hugo Claus, Flemish writer, painter and film director (b. 1929)
• April 5 - Charlton Heston, American actor (b. 1923)
• May 26 - Sydney Pollack, American actor, director, and producer (b. 1934)
• June 15 - Stan Winston, American special effects and makeup artist (b. 1946)
• August 9 - Bernie Mac, African-American actor and comedian (b. 1957)
• September 1 - Don LaFontaine, American voice actor (b. 1940) [SL: he was the voice you could hear in many trailers]
• September 26 - Paul Newman, American actor (b. 1925)
• October 20 - Sœur Emmanuelle, Belgian-born French nun (b. 1908)
• December 13 - Horst Tappert, German actor (b. 1923)
• December 24 - Harold Pinter, English playwright (b. 1930)

That's it. Join me on 31 December 2009 for a summary of the year!

Minifigures

Lego bricks celebrate their 50th birthday this year, and the Lego minifigure its 30th. A fan made a video about those inventive little people, revisiting History:

History

When first reIeased in 1974, Lego minifigures were at the same scaIe as the current minifigures. However, these figures differed in tooling and articulation: they had solid torsos without separate movable arms, solid lower body pieces that were not moveable, and heads without printed features. They had a small variety of headpieces, including caps, pigtail hair and cowboy hats. An image on Minifigs.net shows the earlier, larger scale, human figures.

The first modern minifigures were released in 1978, with seven different figures in Castle, Space, and Town themes.^[1] For the next 11 years, minifigure heads were produced with a simple facial expression, rendered as two solid black dots for eyes and a smile, also painted in solid black. In 1989, minifigures in the Pirates theme were produced with different facial expressions.^[1] The Pirates minifigures also included hooks for hands, as well as peg legs; this was the first departure from the traditional body parts.

Another departure from traditional parts was the use of spring-loaded legs. These legs are joined together at the top. These legs were only featured in basketball sets, 2002-2003.

By 2003, Lego had reportedly produced 3.7 billion minifigures.^[2]

(from Wikipedia)

The Wearing of the Grin

Perhaps I should have thought about it on St Patrick's Day, but it's only today that I've had the idea to google the following video on YouTube. It stars Porky Pig who is looking high and low for refuge in Ireland, and he ends up in a castle owned by leprechauns… (According to Uncyclopedia, leprechauns are "little magical hoppity green creatures commonly confused with the Irish.")




"Le-le-le-le-leprechauns! What nonsense!"

I love Porky's look at 03:42. The green shoes dance is just fantastic, by the way.

"I really must be going… I'm late for an appointment… with me-me-my psychiatrist…"

That was a quite surreal cartoon, don't you think?

Wikipedia trivia:

"The title refers to The Wearing of the Green, an old Irish ballad, while the green shoes themselves are borrowed from the Hans Christian Anderson fable The Red Shoes (and the 1948 film based on it) about a pair of ballet shoes that never let their wearer stop dancing."

Today's Uncyclopedia featured articles: midget, Ewok, Oompah Loompah, Dwarfs, Hobbit, Penguins, Tom Cruise. And the Miget cockpunching terrorists, as a bonus.

MacBook Air gets pwned!

Remember the commercial announcing the brand-new MacBook Air?



(The music playing is "New Soul" by Yael Naïm.)

Check out this parody:



Pwned!

Wikipedia:

Etymology

The word "pwn" may have arisen and spread as a common typo of the word "own," since the 'p' and 'o' keys are adjacent on a standard English keyboard. ^[1][2] Alternatively, the word pwnage may have been created as a portmanteau of the words "pure" and "ownage," "perfect" and "ownage," or "powerful" and "ownage." Similarly, "pwn" may have derived from "powerfully owned," such as "you just got powerfully owned!" (shortened to "you just got pwned!").

Pronunciation

Given the recent development of the word and its primary use in written form only, there is no single accepted pronunciation of pwn. However, "own", "pawn", "poon" and "pone" are frequently used, and "pwen" is also considered an acceptable pronunciation.^[3]

The MacBook Air, why the hell not?



And a glimpse on prehistoric times:




Next year, I bet we'll get something even thinner: the MacBook Helium:

Tribute to Jek Porkins

In Star Wars even characters that only appear a few seconds in a movie have a fully developed background in the Expanded Universe and often have adamant fans who worship them. This is the case of Jek Porkins, a pilot of the Red Squadron attacking the Death Star in Episode IV. Here's one of his two scenes (the first being him just saying "Red six"):



Despite his death, Porkins got somewhat elevated to the status of a legendary hero who died on the (space) battlefield. Some nerds suggested that Lucas hid the reason why Porkins exploded:



I can hold it!

Another version of his death is the following:



Jek Porkins was portrayed by the late William Hootkins, who also played "Lt. Max Eckhardt in Batman (1989), and Major Eaton, one of the army intelligence men appearing at the beginning and the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark", as stated on Wikipedia.

Porkins flies a starfighter (i.e. a spacecraft) named X-wing in the Star Wars universe. In 2007, the San Diego Tripoli Rocket Association built and launched a 23-foot-long X-wing model propelled by four rockets. Then, what if Porkins climbed in that X-wing fighter?



No, wait, here's what really happened:



That black starfighter is called "TIE fighter".

Leap Day (aka 'bissextile day')

Since today is 29 February, I thought it would be a good opportunity to write a few words about this day that only occurs once every four years (except on century years that aren't divisible by 400, e.g. 1700 and 2100). Here's the explanation found on Wikipedia:

Although the modern calendar counts a year as 365 days, a complete revolution around the sun takes approximately 365 days and 6 hours. Every four years, an extra twenty-four hours have accumulated, so one extra day is added to that calendar to keep the count coordinated with the sun's apparent position. (…) A leap day is more likely to fall on a Monday than on a Sunday. This is because the Gregorian calendar repeats itself every 400 years, which is exactly 20871 weeks including 97 leap days. Over this period February 29 falls thirteen times on a Sunday, Tuesday or Thursday; fourteen times on a Friday or Saturday; and fifteen times on a Monday or Wednesday.

Here's the most notable fact that happened exactly four years ago (from Wikipedia):

76th Academy Awards: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King wins Best Picture and Director awards and nine others for a total of 11 Academy Awards, a tie for the most ever won by a single film, and the largest sweep ever for a single film, having received 11 nominations. Acting honors were as follows: Best Actor: Sean Penn for Mystic River, Best Actress: Charlize Theron for Monster, Best Supporting Actor: Tim Robbins for Mystic River, Best Supporting Actress: Renée Zellweger for Cold Mountain. Sources: (Newsday) (Box Office Mojo) (IMDB)

Fours years have passed! Time flies, as you can see. I can remember this ceremony perfectly, for it was the last one I saw on telly, because after that BeTV refused to broadcast it… (F*ckers.) Anyway, I was very happy for Peter Jackson and his crew, because all of them had done a terrific job with this marvelous The Lord of the Rings trilogy. About one year ago, I posted the introductory spot of the ceremony, which is basically a spoof on all the successful movies of 2003:

I spotted references to (in order of appearance) Last Action Hero, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Terminator, Master and Commander, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mystic River, Seabiscuit, Finding Nemo, Cold Mountain, Monster, Something's Gotta Give, Lost in Translation and The Last Samurai. Could you find more?

While looking up for this video, I found one more fine example of Brokeback Mountain-inspired trailer, this time focusing on the "love relationship" bewteen Billy Crystal and the late Jack Palance. Most bits come from City Slickers and City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold.

Notice that the boy you see at 01:03 and at the end is actually the eleven-year-old Jake Gyllenhaal, who starred in Brokeback Mountain with the late Heath Ledger!

Mac vs. PC

"Spécial dédicace" for Pitchou: he asked me to explain the differences between a Mac and a (Windows) PC. I think that these short advertisements deliver a clear message:



True that you always have to buy extra expensive items to enhance your PC — and I'm not even talking about upgrades…




Security problems are really annoying. Especially when you're subject to viruses:



Gesundheit! 114.000 viruses attacking PCs, none for Macs!




Did you catch the difference?




True that PCs crash pretty often, while Mac rarely do. (It happened only thrice with my iBook G4 in three years, and it was just my fault, not the computer's.) I find it pretty awkward that you've got to click on "Start" in order to turn off your computer… That's pretty dumb!

And as a special treat to my old Muppet friend Martin aka Waldorf, I found an old commercial that's a reference to George Orwell's 1984:




Even Bill Gates says Macs rule:

To create a new standard, it takes something that's not just a little bit different, it takes something that's really new and really captures people's imagination and the Macintosh, of all the machines I've ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard. (1984)

Thumbs up!!

It is quite a shame for PCs to have SEVERAL pages on Wikipedia about criticism of Microsoft (the whole company, I mean), while there are no such things for Macs… Well, you can only find this:

Apple has received criticism for not notifying users of system vulnerabilities until a fix is released,^[85] and has been accused of pressuring journalists to release their sources, with regards to leaked information about new Apple products.^[86] Apple also has received criticism for its iPhone and iPod integration with iTunes for not facilitating creation of software to run and maintain those devices using different applications tools besides iTunes.^[Source] Apple also has been investigated and criticized for possible sweatshop conditions in factories in China where contract manufacturers make its iPod.^[Source] Apple also has received criticism and two class-action lawsuits at both state and federal level about its iPhone product only allowed service through AT&T and the recent software update that made the iPhone useless if it was to be unlocked using a different tool that cited monopolistic and antitrust allegations between the two companies.^[89]

Basically, these are just legal issues. They are indeed to be condemned, but as far as the computers are concerned, it doesn't matter a lot. Quite the contrary, here are the links to criticism on Microsoft products:

• For criticism of Windows Vista, see Criticism of Windows Vista
• For criticism of Windows XP, see Criticism of Windows XP
• For criticism of Windows 2000, see the criticism section of the Windows 2000 article
• For criticism of Windows Me, see the criticism section of the Windows Me article
• For criticism of Windows 9x, see the criticism section of the Windows 9x article
• For criticism of Internet Explorer, see Criticism of Internet Explorer
• For criticism of Microsoft Office, see the criticism section of the Microsoft Office article

To finish with, why wouldn't you read this Uncyclopedia entry on Scientology. Some quotes to give you an idea:



“Whoa... I must have been so high.” — L. Ron Hubbard

“I'd say it's horse shit, but I've never seen a horse's ass that big.” — Oscar Wilde on Space Opera in Scientology

“Scientology is the stupidest thing i've ever heard of .” — 99.99999999999% of the population of the universe on scientology

“ROFL” — God

“LMAO” — Buddha

“I once did scientology, but they never called me back.” — Oscar Wilde

Cloverfield

After a two-weeks exam session, it's now time for me to write a little bit more on this blog. Being on "holiday" for the next week will allow me to surf the Internet a little bit more than usual, watching crappy videos on YouTube, but also reading articles on UNCYCLOPEDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I discovered this website about one week ago, and since then, I've made incredible discoveries. Basically, it's the un-Wikipedia, the corrupted version of it, without any single piece of reliable information. … Or maybe it is actually reliable. No one knows actually… Anyway, my point is to tell you that henceforth (I like that word), I shall be featuring at least one Uncyclopedia article in every blog entry I post here. (Because I don't think it'd be appropriate to do that on germ@namur…)

So, since today is 18 January 2008, I had to write a few words about this Internet phenomenon (I mean as for the advertising campaign based on speculations) nicknamed Cloverfield. But what can I say more about it? I haven't seen the film (obviously). Maybe you can read the Uncyclopedia article about it.

If you read other articles, you'll notice not only that most of them criticize Jesusland (that is to say the United States), but also that they feature so-called Oscarwildeizsms. What I like most about Uncyclopedia are the twisted pictures. Wanna see Mr Bean when he was a toddler? Click here. He's got some uncanny resemblance with the Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero. I'm sure Bruno will confirm.

Today's featured article is devoted to chavs. (YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!) I came up with this idea today, during the break between the two parts of the English grammar exam, watching through the window and peeking at dozens of young teenagers smoking and spitting on the pavement, and having a typical outfit and behaviour. But let's go back to chavs, now. As I'm too lazy to invent a proper definition, I just quote this, from the Wikipedia entry:

Chav, also Charv/Charver and Chavette (pronounced /ʧæv/, with 'ch' as in chair) are mainly derogatory slang terms in the United Kingdom for a subcultural stereotype fixated on fashions such as imitation gold, poorly made jewellery and fake designer clothing (often Burberry), combined with elements of working class British street fashion. The term appeared in mainstream dictionaries in 2005.^[1][2]

There are regional variations; in North East England (particularly in the Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne areas) the variant charv or charver/charva is most commonly used and has been used since the early 1990s, while in the south east chav and chavette are the usual forms. What is unusual is that the vowel in charver is ɑ: (as in 'far') and the mainstream UK equivalent uses the æ (as in 'cat') vowel in chav which goes against the usual North-South (a:/æ) vowel distinction.^[3]

The defining features of the chav clothing is the Burberry pattern (notably a now-discontinued baseball cap) and from a variety of other casual and sportswear brands. Tracksuits, hoodies, track suit bottoms and baseball caps are particularly associated with this stereotype. Response to the term has ranged from amusement to criticism that it is a new manifestation of classism.^[4] The term has also been associated with juvenile delinquency, the "ASBO Generation", "Hoodie culture", and "Yob culture".

So, it must look like this:


And his car, the Chavrolet:


Basically, it's what we call "Ronny" in Wallonia, the female counterpart being a "Ronnette". The Ronny is to be distinguished from the barakî, who is older, fatter and often poorer. In France, a Ronny is a Jacky (and his female is a Jackette) or a "racaille", and in Flanders they apparently call them Johnny and Marina.

But what do they say about them in the Uncyclopedia entry? A few witty quote, first:

"The Chav is proof that evolution has gone wrong. Unfortunately, it is also proof that survival of the fittest is comlpetely wrong. If I was right about that, none of them would make it past 20."
— Charles Darwin

"Amazing creatures! They rival the chimpanzee with their use of simple tools and basic language!"
— Jane Goodall

And the Un-definition:

Chavvus Blingus) is a 'species' closely related to the American Wigger (Homo Phobius) or Gangsta (Homo Blingius), the Scottish Ned or Gadgie (Homo Gadgness) the Australian Bogan (Homo Boganis), the Irish Scanger (Homo Retardus), the Finnish Pissis (Homo Pissisus), the Russian Gopnik (Homo Gopnikitus), the Romanian Cocalar (Homo Cockalarus), and the Singaporean Ah Beng (Homo Chankeus) all of whom being distantly related off-shoots of the human race (Homo Burberey capius). The French word for chav is "racaille" or "caillera" (whereas the worldwide term is generally 'Prick').

Here are some of the lines that made me roll on the floor:

The chav has become far too common, for they breed like filthy, filthy rabbits. Not enough people have been firing fireworks at them in the street lately, and so they have begun to grow out of control. Hated by a good portion of humanity,(the other portion just enjoys making money out of them), these creatures are easily distinguishable; they tend to gather in groups in towns, particularly shopping precincts; they talk some kind of bastard dialect of their own devising, the most important words being ‘innit and nar’.

Somehow the female side of the species decides to follow these 'Hard Gangsta's' around and constantly help spread around various STI's, mostly Syphilis, AIDS, Herpes & Chlomedia. This behavious is used to keep the 'Gangsta Number' (population) of the male chavs at bay. Despite this, the chav population is still on the increase.

Helpful Chav to English Translations (Click here to see a handy guide to chav speech)

One of them, King Michael, won £9 million thanks to the lottery… I'm gonna stop here: I think it was fun enough for today. Or maybe just watch this ad:



I don't think that the Lego Group thought that there could be ambiguity…

Happy New Year!!!

It is customary to say "Happy New Year" to everyone on 1st January, so now it's done (it was quick!), I can go on with my usual silly things I found.

Let's have a look at what will happen this year:

2008 is a leap year. It basically means that it has an extra day, namely on 29 February (on a Friday this time).

More interestingly, 2008 is the International Year of the Potato. That's good news for me, since I love eating them, especially as chips and crisps. (Yes, I'm a perfectly healthy person, though!) But while reading the relevant Wikipedia entry, I discovered that the UN goal was:

affirming the need to focus world attention on the role that the potato can play in providing food security and eradicating poverty.^[1]

All right, then. No International Year of the Belgian Chip.

There will be many interesting events during this year. Here are the ones I wanted to highlight:

• 14 February: "Bunker Philo" (I'll be there!), but also Saint Valentine's Day! I've gotta think about it… My first Valentine's Day. What a kerfuffle! But don't worry, I already have an idea for a present. But shhhhhh!
  
• 24 February: the 80th Academy Awards Ceremony: it's a shame they don't broadcast it anymore on BeTV, for I had been watching it between 3 and 6 am for many years…
• 2 March: Russian presidential elections. I can already assert that Dmitri Medvedev will win, because Vladimir "Combover" Putin endorsed him as his candidate to the function.
• 7 June to 29 June: the Euro 2008 championship tournament in Switzerland and Austria. Fortunately, the Belgian Red Devils didn't manage to be qualified, so that we won't be distracted by their matches during the exam period.
• 8 August to 24 August: the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. As we get less medals each time, perhaps we'll get only one this year (probably Justine Henin).
• 4 November: US presidential election. By the end of the year, G.W. Bush will eventually be gone! (Or kind of.) Perhaps the Americans will have a women as head of state?

Furthermore, the Iraq war will continue, as well as the War in Afghanistan, the Conflict in Darfur, and also the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

And there's already a page for the deaths in 2008, with a large number of curious but interesting links…

We'll see in one year's time how the World has changed! Let's hope that all of us will still be there! (We never know…)

But still, have fun and enjoy 2008 !!!