Categories
Art Humanities Words

I’ll take Swords for 400

blade

An intriguing feature of this sword is an as yet indecipherable inscription, found along one of its edges and inlaid in gold wire. It has been speculated that this is a religious invocation, since the language is unknown… Here’s what the inscription seems to read:

+NDXOXCHWDRGHDXORVI+

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Categories
People Politics Words

Rhetological Fallacies

arguments

From Information is Beautiful. Click through for the full list.

Categories
Mythology and Folklore People Words

Interpretatio germanica

I’m surprised I’ve never thought about this before:

More on Odin/Mercury from Wikipedia:

Scholars have noted, most recently Anthony Birley, that Odin’s apparent identification with Mercury has little to do with Mercury’s classical role of being messenger of the gods, but appears to be due to Mercury’s role of psychopomp. Other contemporary evidence may also have led to the equation of Odin with Mercury; Odin, like Mercury, may have at this time already been pictured with a staff and hat, may have been considered a trader god, and the two may have been seen as parallel in their roles as wandering deities.

For the week in full:

  • Monday/Lundi = Máni (personification of the Moon)/Luna (the Moon)
  • Tuesday/Mardi = Tyr/Mars (both Gods of War)
  • Wednesday/Mercredi = Woden/Mercury (as above)
  • Thursday/Jeudi = Thor/Jupiter (thunderbolts and lightning…)
  • Friday/Vendredi = Frigg/Venus (love)
  • Saturday/Samedi = Saturn/Day of Sabbath
  • Sunday/Dimanche = Sunna (personification of the Sun)/Day of God
Categories
Politics Words

Extinction

Text in full:

We closed the borders, folks, we nailed it.
No trees, no plants, no immigrants.
No foreign nurses, no Doctors; we smashed it.
We took control of our affairs. No fresh air.
No bird, no bees, no HIV, no Poles, no pollen.
No pandas, no polar bears, no ice, no dice.
No rainforests, no foraging, no France.
No frogs, no golden toads, no Harlequins.
No Greens, no Brussels, no vegetarians, no lesbians.
No carbon curbed emissions, no CO2 questions.
No lions, no tigers, no bears. No BBC picked audience.
No loony lefties, please. No politically correct classes.
No classes. No Guardian readers. No readers.
No emus, no EUs, no Eco warriors, no Euros,
No rhinos, no zebras, no burnt bras, no elephants.
We shut it down! No immigrants, no immigrants.
No snivelling-recycling-global-warming nutters.
Little man, little woman, the world is a dangerous place.
Now, pour me a pint, dear. Get out of my fracking face.

By Jackie Kay

Categories
Business Words Work

Strategy, Tactics

These terms are used and misused quite a lot in my life atm: planning business direction at work and spend too much time watching board game videos on Youtube at home. The misuse is mostly when they’re used interchangeably and there are plenty of pithy aphorisms to explain the difference like:

Strategy is undertaken before the battle. Tactics are implemented during battle.

Or:

Strategy is the what. Tactics is the how.

But by far my favourite way to think about it takes me back to the early noughties when the only time I/we would use the word tactical was in reference to ‘going tactical’:

If the strategic aim on a night out was to make it to Sugar for the £1 pound vodbulls and I was too pissed too early I’d go for a tactical chunder to help sober me up.

Categories
Film Words

These aren’t the words you’re looking for

Alderaan is said 20 times. Can features twice as much as can’t (positivity for the win!). I didn’t get much further.

All dialogue in Star Wars ordered alphabetically:

(via Helen)