It's poetry.

One may also find an occasional misspelled word, as well as various grammatical mistakes, in the game's text, especially when talking to an NPC. Such examples include saying poop in many events. GMs are at a loss of words as to why this happens.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MapleStory


But all is not so tranquil and awkwardly worded as it seems! Someone has detected dark forces at work!

"This talk page has become too long, I suggest to archive it seeing how the old archives are.. really short. --Mapletip 14:11, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

Done -- Prod-You 16:43, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

So you want to cover up your underhanded deeds? Do you think that I am the only one who noticed your ways? If you don't want people to find out, then why do it at all? Not every web surfer only skims through wiki once and leave forever. Some come back again and again and when they do that, they WILL notice what you are doing. 219.75.107.97 04:54, 5 September 2006 (UTC)"

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:MapleStory#Archive_this_Talk.3F

terms that could be cool band names that actually mean something...

Trans fatty acids (commonly termed trans fats) are a type of unsaturated fat (and may be monounsaturated or polyunsaturated).

Trans fats occur naturally in small quantities in meat and dairy products from ruminants. Most trans fats consumed today, however, are industrially created through partial hydrogenation of plant oils and animal fats — a chemical process developed in the early 1900s and first commercialized as Crisco in 1909.

Unlike other fats, trans fats are neither required nor beneficial for health.[1] Eating trans fat increases the risk of coronary heart disease.[2] For these reasons,
health authorities worldwide recommend that consumption of trans fat be reduced to trace amounts. Trans fats from partially hydrogenated oils are generally considered to be worse than those occurring naturally.[3]
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans_fatty_acid

A hug machine (sometimes referred to as a 'hug box', 'squeeze machine', or 'squeeze box') is a deep pressure device designed to calm hypersensitive persons, usually individuals with autism spectrum disorders. The therapeutic, stress-relieving device was originally conceived and designed by Temple Grandin, PhD, at the age of eighteen.

Autism profoundly affects both social interactions and sensitivity to sensory stimulation, often making it uncomfortable or impractical to turn to other human beings for comfort. Grandin solved this by designing the hug machine so both she and others could turn to it for sensory relief, whenever needed or simply desired.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hug_machine

The Cult Awareness Network (or CAN) is a cult-related organization now owned by associates of the Church of Scientology. It previously provided information on groups considered to be cults. It also provided support and referrals to so-called deprogrammers.

Opponents of the new CAN say it has become effectively a subsidiary organization of, and a front group for, Scientology, as it exclusively promotes Scientology's point of view regarding cults and deprogrammers. [5] For example, a section of its website relating to the Aum Supreme Truth sect stated that "...the media was unable to be see the actual source of the crimes at Aum, which of course was the psychiatric treatment, and which continues in hospitals around Japan today" [6]: Scientology is extremely hostile towards psychiatry. The site does not contain any criticism of Scientology, unlike most other sites which claim to provide anti-cult information (other than those dedicated to other specific groups).
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_Awareness_Network

List of lists of fictional things

This is a (theoretically) all-encompassing list of fictional things created in literature or media. Due to the length of this archive, some things have been listed in multiple places for ease of reference.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_fictional_things

Extraordinary rendition is an American extra-judicial procedure which involves the sending of untried criminal suspects, suspected terrorists or alleged supporters of groups which the US Government considers to be terrorist organizations, to countries other than the United States for imprisonment and interrogation.[2] Critics have accused the CIA of rendering suspects to other countries in order to avoid US laws prescribing due process and prohibiting torture, even though many of those countries have, like the US, signed or ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture. The critics have called this practice "torture by proxy"[3] or "torture flights"[4]
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition


Corruption Perceptions Index

Since 1995, Transparency International has published an annual Index of perception of corruption ordering the countries of the world according to "the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians."[1] The organization defines corruption as "the abuse of public office for private gain".[2]
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_Perceptions_Index

"Who is a Jew?"(Hebrew: ?מיהו יהודי) is a religious, social and political debate on the exact definition of which persons can be considered Jewish. The Hebrew phrase Mihu Yehudi ("?מיהו יהודי", "Who is a Jew?") came into widespread use when several high profile legal cases in Israel grappled with this subject after the founding of the Jewish state in 1948. As Judaism shares some of the characteristics of an ethnicity and a religion, the definitions of a Jew may vary, depending on whether a religious, sociological, or ethnical approach to identity is used.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_is_a_Jew%3F

A shallow water blackout is a loss of consciousness caused by cerebral hypoxia towards the end of a breath-hold dive in water typically shallower than five metres, when the swimmer does not necessarily experience an urgent need to breathe and has no other obvious medical condition that might have caused it. Victims are often established practitioners of breath-hold diving, are fit, strong swimmers, and have not experienced problems before. Survivors of shallow water blackout are typically puzzled as to why they blacked out.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shallow_water_blackout

A selective fire firearm can be fired in either of at least two modes, usually depending on the position of a selector switch. Most often, the term "selective fire" or "select-fire" is used to describe a weapon that is capable of automatic or burst fire modes in order to distinguish them from firearms that are only capable of semi-automatic or single fire (i.e. one pull of the trigger fires one shot).
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_fire

Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003)[1], was a landmark United States Supreme Court case. In the 6-3 ruling, the justices struck down the criminal prohibition of homosexual sodomy in Texas. The court had previously addressed the same issue in 1986 in Bowers v. Hardwick, but had upheld the challenged Georgia statute, not finding a constitutional protection of sexual privacy.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_v._Texas

Mfecane (Zulu), also known as the Difaqane or Lifaqane (Sesotho), is an African expression which means something like "the crushing" or "scattering". It describes a period of widespread chaos and disturbance in southern Africa during the period between 1815 and about 1835.

The Mfecane resulted from the rise to power of Shaka, the Zulu king and military leader who conquered the Nguni peoples between the Tugela and Pongola rivers in the beginning of the nineteenth century, and created a militaristic kingdom in the region. The Mfecane also led to the formation and consolidation of other groups — such as the Matabele, the Mfengu and the Makololo — and the creation of states such as the modern Lesotho.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mfecane

Synthetic diamond is diamond produced through chemical or physical processes in a factory. Like naturally occurring diamond it is composed of a three-dimensional carbon crystal. Due to its extreme physical properties, synthetic diamond is used in many industrial applications, and has the potential to become a serious disruptive technology in many new application areas such as electronics and medicine. Synthetic diamond is also called industrial diamond, manufactured diamond, artificial diamond or cultured diamond. Synthetic diamond is not the same as Diamond-like Carbon, DLC, which is amorphous hard carbon, or diamond imitation, which can be made of other materials such as cubic zirconia or silicon carbide.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_diamond

Well, that does take some of the fun out of the game...

One infamous story surrounding this card comes from its early play test version, which had the text "Target player loses next turn." While the intent of the game designers was that the opposing player would skip a turn, many new players saw the card and believed that the targeted player would lose the entire game.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Nine

The truth does not set you free. Only outrageous lies can do that.

Taylor and Brown argue that positive illusions are adaptive, since there is evidence that they are more common in normally mentally healthy individuals than in depressed individuals. However, Pacini, Muir and Epstein (1998) have shown that this may be because depressed people overcompensate for a tendency toward maladaptive intuitive processing by exercising excessive rational control in trivial situations, and note that the difference with non-depressed people disappears in more consequential circumstances.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusion_of_control

Marriage and Rape are basically the same thing for differing lengths of time

The just-world phenomenon, also called the just-world theory, just-world effect or just-world hypothesis, refers to the tendency for people to believe that the world is "just" and so therefore people "get what they deserve."

In another study, subjects were told two versions of a story about an interaction between a woman and a man. Both variations were exactly the same, except at the very end the man raped the woman in one and in the other he proposed marriage. In both conditions, subjects viewed the woman's (identical) actions as inevitably leading to the (very different) results.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_phenomenon

I'm sure you don't mean much by "things".

The Tripartite Pact, also called the Three-Power Pact, Axis Pact, Three-way Pact or Tripartite Treaty was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany on September 27, 1940 by Saburo Kurusu of Imperial Japan, Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany, and Galeazzo Ciano of Fascist Italy entering as an alliance and officially founding the Axis Powers.

The agreement formalized the Axis Powers' partnership, and can be read as a warning to the United States to remain neutral in World War II — or become involved in a war on two fronts.

In the pact the three nations agreed that for the next ten years they would

"stand by and co-operate with one another in... their prime purpose to establish and maintain a new order of things... to promote the mutual prosperity and welfare of the peoples concerned".

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tripartite_Pact

I stand by the children, but not in a sexually abusive manner!

Some of the children's accusations were bizarre. Some alleged that, in addition to having been sexually abused, they saw witches fly, traveled in a hot-air balloon, and were taken in one case through secret underground tunnels, which were sought by investigators but never found. Ray Buckey was described as having beaten a giraffe to death with a baseball bat in front of the children. When shown a series of photographs by police, one child identified actor Chuck Norris as one of the abusers.[1] There were claims of orgies at car washes and airports, and of children being flushed down toilets to secret rooms where they would be abused, then cleaned up and presented back to their unsuspecting parents. Some children said they were made to play a game called "Naked Movie Star" in which they were photographed nude.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMartin_preschool

Children must be believed because they are so weak and stupid and vulnerable. But they must not be believed for all the same reasons. The most sensible path is to have absolutely nothing to do with them.

The Most Insidious Thing about Communist Propaganda is how subtle it is.

The Pyongyang International Film Festival is a biennial cultural exhibition held in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. The film festival is an unusually cosmopolitan event for a state known to be reclusive to Western contact.

The event originated in 1987 as the Pyongyang Film Festival of the Non-aligned and Other Developing Countries. As the name precisely delineated, the festival was a cultural exchange between countries of the non-aligned movement. The maiden event, held from September 1 through September 10, showed short films, features, and documentaries that were judged for competitive awards.

The film festival returned in 1990 and would be regularly held every other year. Recurrent subject matter included domestic cinema that commonly praised the high leadership such as a film shown at the 1992 film festival, verbosely translated, Glory of Our People in Holding the Great Leader in High Esteem.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyongyang_Film_Festival

The Battle You Can't Win Is The Greatest One Of All

In Norse mythology, Ragnarök ("fate of the gods"^[1]) is the battle at the end of the world. It would be waged between the gods (the Æsir, led by Odin) and their aggressors (the fire giants, the Jotuns and various monsters, led by Loki). Not only will some of the gods, giants, and monsters perish in this apocalyptic conflagration, but almost everything in the universe will be torn asunder.

In Viking warrior societies, dying in battle is admirable. This is carried over into the worship of a pantheon in which the gods themselves will one day be overthrown at Ragnarök. Exactly what will happen, who will fight whom, and the fates of the participants in this battle are well known to the Norse peoples from their own sagas and skaldic poetry. The Völuspá — prophecy of the völva (sybil), the first lay of the Poetic Edda, dating from about 1000 AD — spans the history of the gods, from the beginning of time to Ragnarök, in 65 stanzas. The Prose Edda, written two centuries later by Snorri Sturluson, describes in detail what would take place before, during, and even after the battle.

What is unique about Ragnarök as an eschatological myth is its emphasis on the idea that the gods already know through prophecy what is going to happen: when the event will occur, who will be slain by whom, and so forth. They even realize that they are powerless to prevent Ragnarök. But they will still bravely and defiantly face their bleak destiny.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnar%C3%B6k

The best diagram of all time.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Grinnell_Glacier2.jpg

Legio Patria Nostra?

The Battle of Camarón took place on 30 April 1863 between the French Foreign Legion and the Mexican army. It was this battle that the Legion earned its legendary status. The small infantry patrol led by Capitaine Danjou, Sous-Lieutenant Maudet and Sous-Lieutenant Vilain numbering 62 soldiers and 3 officers was attacked and besieged by over two thousand[1] Mexican infantry and cavalry units organized into 3 battalions, and was forced to make a defense at the nearby Hacienda Camarón.

On the 30th of April, at 1 a.m., the 3rd company was on its way, with its 3 officers and 62 men. At 7 a.m., after a 15 mile march, it stopped at Palo Verde in order to get some rest. Soon after a Mexican force of 1,600 soldiers (600 cavalry & 1,000 infantry) was spotted. Captain Danjou made the company take up a square formation and, even though retreating, he drove back several cavalry charges, inflicting the first heavy losses on the enemy.

Looking for a more defensible position, Danjou decided to make a stand at the nearby Hacienda Camarón, an inn protected by a 3m high wall. His plan was to tie up the enemy forces to prevent any attacks on the nearby convoy. While his legionnaires prepared for a defense of the inn, the Mexican commander, Colonel Milan, demanded that Danjou and his men surrender, pointing out the fact that the Mexican Army was greatly superior in number. Danjou's answer was: "We have munitions. We will not surrender." Then, he swore to fight to the death and made his men swear the same.

At noon, Captain Danjou was shot in the chest and died. His soldiers continued to fight, despite overwhelming odds. When ammunition ran out, the last of Danjou's men mounted a desperate bayonet attack. When the last three survivors were asked to surrender, they insisted that the Mexican soldiers allow them safe passage back home, to keep their flag and weapons, and to escort the body of the fallen Danjou. Upon seeing this, the Mexican commander commented, "these are not men, they are devils," and out of respect agreed to the terms.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Camar%C3%B3n

"They want a mercenary army, what we call a volunteer army. A mercenary army of the disadvantaged. And in fact, in the Vietnam War, the U.S. military realized, they had made a very bad mistake. I mean, for the first time I think ever in the history of European imperialism, including us, they had used a citizens' army to fight a vicious, brutal, colonial war, and civilians just cannot do that kind of a thing. For that, you need the French Foreign Legion, the Gurkhas or something like that. "
-http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky

Eternal Vigilance is the Price of ROCK!

The last two letters of the logo for the American rock band KISS resemble the SS symbol. The band had no National Socialist or antisemitic leanings, bass player Gene Simmons being an Israeli-born Jew, and the likelihood is that the similarity is probably unintentional. The band uses a modified version of the logo in Germany, where display of the SS symbol is illegal.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sig_Rune

Good Plan

At his afternoon situation conference on April 22, Hitler fell into a tearful rage when he realised that his plans of the day before were not going to be realised. He declared that the war was lost, he blamed the generals and announced that he would stay in Berlin until the end and then kill himself.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Halbe

The World Hates Prisoners of all kinds.

Four days after Hitler's suicide, on May 3, 1945, the Cap Arcona, the Thielbek, and the passenger liner Deutschland (converted to a hospital ship but unmarked as such) were sunk in four separate attacks by RAF planes of 83 Group, 2nd Tactical Air Force: the first by No. 184 Squadron RAF based in Hustedt; the second by No. 198 Squadron RAF based in Plantlünne, led by Group Captain Johnny Baldwin; the third by No. 263 Squadron RAF based in Ahlhorn; and the fourth by Royal Air Force Hawker Typhoons of No. 197 Squadron RAF based in Ahlhorn. The fighters used rockets, bombs, and machine-guns. After the first wave had attacked the ships, the Cap Arcona hoisted the white ensign without any effect. The ships were carrying from 7,000 to 8,000 prisoners from the German concentration camps in Neuengamme, Stutthof and Mittelbau-Dora, half of whom were Russian and Polish POWs, others from 24 nationalities, including French, Danish, and Dutch. Those reaching the shore after the sinkings were shot by SS troops, but about 350 managed to escape from the massacre, others were machine gunned by the British pilots while trying to get ashore.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cap_Arcona

Syntax

The Wilhelm Gustloff was a passenger ship built by the Blohm and Voss shipyards, and was named after the Nazi functionary Wilhelm Gustloff. The ship was launched on 5 May 1937. While evacuating Germans trapped by the Red Army in East Prussia, it was hit by three torpedoes from a Soviet submarine in the Baltic Sea during the night of 30 January 1945. The sinking remains the worst disaster in maritime history — it left over 9,000 people dead, more than half of them children.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KdF_Ship_Wilhelm_Gustloff

A disaster is something that's an accident. Torpedoing an enemy ship is deliberate and falls within the actions permissable during war.

The Vagina is Fucked Up

Rely tampons

In the late 1970s, Procter and Gamble introduced superabsorbent Rely tampons^[3] , in response to women's demands for tampons which could contain an entire menstrual flow without leaking or replacement.^[2] Rely used carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) and compressed beads of polyester for absorption. This tampon design could absorb nearly 20 times its own weight in fluid^[4] . Further, the tampon would "blossom" into a cup shape in the vagina in order to hold menstrual fluids.

The superabsorbent properties of Rely caused vaginal dryness by absorbing the natural humidity of the vagina. Often this led to ulcerations in the vaginal wall when the tampon was removed, offering pathways for bacteria to infect the bloodstream^[4] . Further, the tampons' superabsorbency meant that the viscosity of vaginal fluids was enhanced, providing a good environment for bacteria growth^[5] . In addition, CMC has features which effectively filter the toxins of Staphylococcus which cause TSS^[4] . The recipe for disaster came about as a combination of S. aureus naturally benignly occurring in about 5–15% of women^[6] , the insertion of the tampon adding oxygen to the normally anaerobic vaginal environment allowing for increased bacterial growth, and the tampon's super absorbency meant that women did not need to replace them as frequently and so left them in place longer.

According to the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, 942 women were diagnosed with tampon-related TSS in the USA from the March 1980 to March 1981, 40 of whom died.^[5] In September 1980, Procter and Gamble recalled Rely^{[citation needed]} after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report in mid 1980 explaining the bacterial mechanism which lead to TSS, and that Rely tampons was associated with TSS more than any other tampon. As part of the voluntary recall, Procter and Gamble entered into a consent agreement with the FDA "providing for a program for notification to consumers and retrieval of the product from the market".^{[7]
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_Shock_Syndrome}

^{The vagina has a Ph level. It's like a river or a stream. What an incredible price women have to pay for the sake of the species.}

Sports Hero?

Shavarsh Vladimirovich Karapetyan (Russian: Шаварш Владимирович Карапетян) (born May 19, 1953 in Kirovakan) is a retired Soviet Armenian finswimmer, 13-times European Champion and seven-times USSR Champion, who saved 20 lives when a trolleybus fell into the Erevan reservoir.

Karapetyan, Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR, ten-time finswimming World Record-breaker, is better known in the former USSR for one particular day of his life, September 16, 1976. On that day, training with his brother Kamo, also a finswimmer, by running alongside the Erevan reservoir, Karapetyan had just completed his usual distance of 20 km when he heard the sound of the crash and saw the sinking trolleybus which had gone out of control and fallen from the dam.

The trolleybus lay at the bottom of the reservoir some 25 meters off the shore at a depth of 10 meters. Karapetyan swam to it and, under conditions of almost zero visibility due to the silt rising from the bottom, broke the back window with his legs. The trolleybus was crowded (92 passengers it was later revealed) and Karapetyan knew he had little time, spending some 30 to 35 seconds for each person he saved.

Karapetyan managed to rescue 20 people, but this was the end of his sports career: the combined effect of cold water and the multiple wounds he received, left him lying unconscious for 45 days, with subsequent lung complications preventing him from continuing his sports career.

Karapetyan's achievement was not recognized immediately. All related photos were kept at the procurator's office and were only published two years later. He was awarded a medal "For Saving Drowning People in the Water" and the Order of the Badge of Honor. His name became a household name in the USSR on October 12, 1982, when Komsomolskaya Pravda published an article on his feat, entitled "The Underwater Battle of the Champion".

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shavarsh_Karapetyan

More notable for being one of the few athletes to ever do anything useful.

what's wrong with people? Why don't they care?

Maps of Northern Cyprus of various kinds are available. Maps are often either political, physical or historical. A political map is to show territorial borders; the purpose of the physical map of Northern Cyprus is to show features of geography such as mountains, soil type or land use. The included historical maps of Northern Cyprus are political maps that give the situation in an historical area. Old maps are facsimiles of original maps of Northern Cyprus. Click on the image for better resolution and - when available - a description of the map. Maps of neigbouring entities often include Northern Cyprus. Supranational maps can be found at Maps of Europe. As Northern Cyprus is part of the Island of Cyprus (and de jure part of the Republic of Cyprus), maps are also included in Maps of Cyprus.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maps_of_Northern_Cyprus

German Chancellors

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancellor_of_Germany

The second you lower the mustache requirements, you get riff-raff like that damn corporal, Mr. Hitler.

The record discloses no excuses for this man.

"There is nothing to be said in mitigation. For Goering was often, indeed almost always, the moving force, second only to his leader. He was the leading war aggressor, both as political and as military leader; he was the director of the slave labour programme and the creator of the oppressive programme against the Jews and other races, at home and abroad. All of these crimes he has frankly admitted. On some specific cases there may be conflict of testimony, but in terms of the broad outline, his own admissions are more than sufficiently wide to be conclusive of his guilt. His guilt is unique in its enormity. The record discloses no excuses for this man." '

It all seems so transparent now. Our language has failed us. No. We have failed our language. It is no longer possible to express things such as this. Everything that is genuine is pounced upon by the rabid public and torn apart.

Is that really it? Failed by their own standards?

Hanna Reitsch (March 29, 1912 in Hirschberg, Silesia - August 24, 1979 in Frankfurt am Main) was the most famous German test pilot.

Hanna was born the daughter of an ophthalmologist and was in training to become a medical doctor in 1932 when she left that field to pursue a career as a test pilot. In the 1930s she became famous, setting many glider, aerobatic and endurance records, being the first woman to cross the Alps in a glider. Several of her gliding records stand to this day.

In 1937 she was posted to the Luftwaffe testing center at Rechlin by Ernst Udet. While under direct command of Karl Franke she soon became a major test pilot on the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka and Dornier Do 17 projects, as well as one of the few to fly the new Focke-Achgelis Fa 61, the world's first fully controllable helicopter. Her flying and her photogenic qualities made her a star of the Nazi party, always looking for publicity, and in 1938 she flew the Fa 61 every night inside the "Deutschlandhalle" at the Berlin Motor Show.

Early guidance and stabilization problems of the V-1 Flying Bomb were finally resolved by a daring test flight by Reitsch in a V-1 modified for manned operation. The V-1 was dropped from a Heinkel He 111 bomber. The data she brought back after fighting the unwieldy V-1 down to a successful landing enabled the engineers to devise the stabilization system.

After the war German citizens were forbidden from flying, except, after a few years, in gliders. In 1952 Reitsch won third place in the world gliding championship in Spain (and was the only woman who competed). She continued to break records including the women's altitude record (6848 metres) and became German champion in 1955.

She was interviewed and photographed several times in the early 1970's in Germany by US investigative photo journalist Ron Laytner, the only print media person to do so. At the end of her last interview Hanna Reitsch told Laytner, "And what have we now in Germany? A land of bankers and car-makers. Even our great army has gone soft. Soldiers wear beards and question orders.

“I am not ashamed to say I believed in National Socialism. I still wear the Iron Cross with diamonds Hitler gave me. But today in all Germany you can’t find a single person who voted Adolf Hitler into power.

Then she uttered the words that for so long kept her out of the history books: “Many Germans feel guilty about the war. But they don’t explain the real guilt we share – that we lost.”

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanna_Reitsch

An Unhealthy Family. Snippets.

On June 20th 1938, Magda left after a marital fight over Joseph's infidelities, and stayed at a Dresden clinic. She returned to accompany him to the opening of the Künstlerhaus on July 8th - she later claimed to Albert Speer that Joseph had threatened to seek custody of the children if she refused to return. From September 2nd to October 14th, Magda told the children that their father was not allowed to visit. Eventually Hitler intervened, and asked both Magda and Joseph to sign a contract pledging themselves to a year of good behaviour for the sake of their relationship.

[...]

Born February 19, 1937, she was commonly called "Hedda". She had insisted, in 1944, that when she grew up she was going to marry SS Adjutant Günter Schwägermann, having been captivated by the fact he had a fake eye.

She was 8 years old at the time of her death.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goebbels_children

This article is rather detailed, indicating a somewhat concerning amount of interest in a sad but trivial subject.

God Clearly Intended for us to stay in the water.

A common belief is that when stressed, an octopus may begin to eat its own arms. However, limited research conducted in this area has revealed that the cause of this abnormal behaviour may be a virus called autophagy that attacks the octopus's nervous system. Thus this behavior may be more correctly labeled as a neurological disorder.

Octopuses are also quite strong for their size. Octopuses kept as pets have been known to open the covers of their aquariums and survive for a time in the air in order to get to a nearby feeder tank and gorge themselves on the fish there. They have also been known to catch and kill some species of sharks.[6]
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus

Learn more in 5 minutes than you have in the rest of your life.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cognitive_biases

Aim low boys, they're riding a charter plane! Or: Tales of the new west

A prominent example of quorum-busting occurred in 2003, when the Texas House of Representatives was going to vote on a redistricting bill that would have favored the Republicans in the state. The House Democrats, certain of defeat if a quorum was present, chose not to be present in the House that day, but instead took a plane to Oklahoma, preventing the bill from passing due to a lack of a quorum. Legislative bodies often have rules to discourage quorum-busting. In many U.S. legislative bodies, such as the United States Senate and House of Representatives, if there is no quorum present a call of the house could be ordered, which would cause absent members to be arrested and brought to the floor of the body. This was the reason that the Texas Democrats fled to Oklahoma, which is outside of the jurisdiction of Texas law.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quorum

Whimsy is an essential part of democracy. Not that this is a democracy, but when we have our way, there will still be such silly behaviors if only because of Louis XIV and what he taught us.

Sort of an american response to Alexander Nevsky or Ivan the Terrible

The United States Navy considered using the Village People hit "In the Navy" in a recruiting advertising campaign on television and radio. They contacted Belolo, who decided to give the rights for free on the condition that the Navy help them shoot the music video. Less than a month later, Village People arrived at the San Diego Naval base. The Navy provided them with a war ship, several aircraft, and hundreds of Navy men. When the video started showing and the Navy started the planned ad campaign, some newspapers protested using taxpayers' money to fund music videos (especially for a group considered by some to be "morally dubious"). The Navy quickly cancelled the campaign. The scandal tremendously boosted the popularity of the song.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Village_People

...This is our culture. Welcome us.

Fair enough, eh?

In another law suit, Wayne Ritchie, a former United States Marshall, alleged the CIA laced his food or drink with LSD at a 1957 Christmas party. While the government admitted it was, at that time, drugging people without their consent, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel found Ritchie could not prove he was one of the victims of MKULTRA. She dismissed the case in 2005.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKULTRA

Proof that the stupid are incapable of thinking that others arn't as stupid as them.

On March 02, 2006 at 5:30 am an Ohio University police officer spotted a bicycle attached to the Oasis restaurant bearing a promotional sticker for the band. The officer saw the words, "This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb" and became concerned. The area was cordoned off, and part of the campus was closed for several hours. The bicycle was subsequently destroyed by the Athens bomb squad despite assurances from the bike's owner that it was just a sticker. The owner, a graduate student, was initially charged with inducing panic, a misdemeanor. However, the charges were dropped a few days later. [1], [2]

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Bike_is_a_Pipe_Bomb

When you don't make value judgements...

be your own PET (often abbreviated to BYOP) are a four-piece post-punk group from Nashville, Tennessee, USA.

The band consists of lead singer Jemina Pearl Abegg, the daughter of Christian artist/ photographer Jimmy Abegg, guitarist Jonas Stein, the son of manager Burt Stein, Jamin Orrall (drums) is the son of producer/songwriter Robert Ellis Orrall, and Nathan Vasquez (bass) is son of acclaimed Latin Jazz guitarist Rafael Vasquez. Vasquez replaced band Jake Orrall, the founding member of BYOP, who left the band to spend a year in Iceland.

BYOP formed in 2003 in the basement of Orrall’s house, which doubles as a home studio/rehearsal space for indie label Infinity Cat Recordings.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_your_own_PET

what they don't tell you is that it's ranked near the top for worst bands ever. I can tell just from one song. It was that bad.

Dearborn Child of Chess

Abe Turner (1924–1962) was an American chess master. He had a chess rating over 2400 and played several times in the U.S. Chess Championship. He was best known as a chess hustler who played blitz chess for money, and was one of the few American masters who had a winning record with Bobby Fischer.

Turner was found stabbed to death in the basement of an Upper West Side building where he had been working as a clerk for Al Horowitz for the magazine Chess Review. He had been stabbed nine times and his body was placed inside a safe. He was found by the superintendent of the building later that afternoon. After the body was discovered the police arrested a clerk-typist employed by the publication. The suspect said he killed Turner and dragged the body along a corridor to the safe that in the basement. The suspect said he had thrown the knife into Central Park. It was never found. He was quoted as saying he killed Turner because Secret Service agents told him to. Turner, who was 38, never married and lived with his father.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abe_Turner

THE PROBLEM WITH CHESS IS ALL THE VIOLENCE IT ENCOURAGES. THE MURDER IS NEVER AS BRUTAL AS THE COVERUP. WHICH MAKES NO SENSE, SEEING AS DEAD BODIES ARE GARBAGE.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer

• "I give 98 percent of my mental energy to chess. Others give only 2 percent."
• "Your body has to be in top condition. Your chess deteriorates as your body does. You can't separate body from mind."

-http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bobby_Fischer
A victim of his own aphorisms, if there ever was one. I see more of Ernst Rohm in him than anyone else does now or ever will.

Wacky Wikipedias

Race results

The show gave the results of each race at the end of each episode, but never indicated a particular scoring system or way to determine who won the Wacky Races as a whole. The cumulative totals for first, second and third place finishes for each contestant are presented below:

Contestant	Results
The Boulder Mobile	3-8-3
The Buzzwagon	3-6-4
The Creepy Coupe	3-3-6
The Bulletproof Bomb	4-5-2
The Compact Pussycat	4-2-5
The Crimson Haybailer	3-4-3
The Convert-A-Car	3-2-5
The Arkansas Chugabug	4-1-4
The Turbo Terrific	4-2-2
The Army Surplus Special	3-1-0
The Mean Machine	0-0-0

If using current Formula1 point system (up to 2006, and taking only first three spots), the results of a championship with 34 races would be this:

Contestant	Results
The Boulder Mobile	112 pts
The Buzzwagon	102 pts
The Bulletproof Bomb	92 pts
The Creepy Coupe	90 pts
The Compact Pussycat	86 pts
The Crimson Haybailer	80 pts
The Convert-A-Car	76 pts
The Arkansas Chugabug	72 pts
The Turbo Terrific	68 pts
The Army Surplus Special	38 pts
The Mean Machine	0 points

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wacky_Races

I want to engage in oral-genital contact with whoever converted the wacky racer standings to the Formula 1 2006 points.

Cite your motherfucking sources. 8,000... Shiiiittt, boy.

Stara Gradiška was the fifth subcamp of the Jasenovac concentration camp, established in 1941 to the east of the main camp near the village of Stara Gradiška. The camp was specially constructed for women and children of Jews, Gypsies, Serbs, and guerrillas.

Eventually more than 50,000 men, women and children were incarcerated by the Ustaše in the medium camp and guarded by Germans and a few female Ustaše troops. All of the women guards were sisters or wives of the male guards and they were known throughout the camp for their cruelty. Nada Tanić Luburić, sister of the first commandant of Jasenovac Maks Luburić, and wife of the second was personally pointed out as one of the diabolical female Ustaše guards in Stara Gradiška. It is estimated that she strangled more than 8,000 women with another female guard.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stara_Gradi%C5%A1ka_concentration_camp

Do the right thing, damn it.

The Laconia incident was a 1942 incident during World War II when RMS Laconia, carrying some 80 civilians and 268 British Army soldiers, and about 1,800 Italian prisoners of war with 160 Polish soldiers on guard, was struck by a torpedo from a Kriegsmarine U-boat off the coast of west Africa and sank. The U-boat commander, Kapitänleutnant Werner Hartenstein, realized the error and commenced rescue operations, joined by other U-boats. Heading to rendezvous with Vichy French ships under Red Cross banners, the U-boats were attacked by an United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber. The event profoundly affected the operations of the German fleet, which abandoned the practice of attempting rescue of civilian survivors under the Laconia order of Karl Dönitz.

[...]

The next morning, September 16, at 11:25am, the four submarines, with Red Cross flags draped across their gun decks, were spotted by an American B-24 Liberator bomber from Ascension Island. Hartenstein signalled to the pilot requesting assistance. Lieutenant James D. Harden of the U.S. Army Air Force turned away and notified his base of the situation. The senior officer on duty that day, Captain Robert C. Richardson III, replied with the order "Sink sub."

[...]

Under the Hague Conventions, hospital ships are protected from attack, but their identity must be communicated to belligerents (III, 1-3), they must be painted white with a Red Cross emblem (III, 5), and must not be used for other purposes (III, 4). Since a submarine remained a military vessel even if hors de combat, the Red Cross emblem did not confer automatic protection, although in many cases it would have been allowed as a practical matter. The order given by Richardson has been called a possible war crime, but the use of a Red Cross flag by an armed military vessel may have been a violation of treaty. It would be a violation under the Geneva Convention of 1949 (II, 44). There is no provision in either convention for temporary designation of a hospital or rescue ship.

The Laconia incident had far-reaching consequences. Until then, as indicated in point #1 of the "Laconia order" (below), it was common for U-boats to assist torpedoed survivors with food, water and directions to the nearest land. Now that it was apparent that the Americans would attack rescue missions under the Red Cross flag, Dönitz ordered that rescues were prohibited; survivors were to be left in the sea.

At the Nuremberg Trials held by the victorious Allies in 1946, Dönitz was indicted for war crimes, including the issuance of the "Laconia order":

Laconia Order

1. All efforts to save survivors of sunken ships, such as the fishing out of swimming men and putting them on board lifeboats, the righting of overturned lifeboats, or the handing over of food and water, must stop. Rescue contradicts the most basic demands of the war: the destruction of hostile ships and their crews.
2. The orders concerning the bringing-in of skippers and chief engineers stay in effect.
3. Survivors are to be saved only if their statements are important for the boat.
4. Stay firm. Remember that the enemy has no regard for women and children when bombing German cities!

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laconia_incident

Again, the aims and methods of war seem completely irrational when looked at in the context of common decency. A surfaced submarine with a red cross flag on it asks for your help, and you bomb it. Good thinking. It might have been a trap. You know, the trap where a surfaced submarine....uh.... um.... hold on....

The Bush administration is undermining our fundamental freedoms

Recent court cases have come to varied results as to whether the unintentional death resulting from autoerotic asphyxiation falls under the "self-induced injury" clause of standard life insurance policies, which prevents payouts for suicide. In June of 2003, one US court said the intent was not death and therefore the case was an accident [3], while another in August 2003 said it does technically fall within the terms since death is the logical result of asphyxiation [4].
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erotic_asphyxiation

A Czech is Just a Joy to Be Around

Frantisek Kotzwara (Czech name: František Kočvara) (1730^[1] – February 2, 1791^[2]) was a virtuoso double bassist ^[1] and composer of fantasia sonatas with a military theme. He is also as well known, if not more so, due to the notorious nature of his death. ^[1]

On September 2, 1791 while he was in London, Kotzwara visited a prostitute in Vine Street, Westminster named Susannah Hill. After dinner with her in her lodgings, Kotzwara paid her two shillings and requested that she cut off his testicles. Hill refused to do so. Kotzwara then proceeded to tie a ligature around the doorknob and then his neck and proceeded to have sexual intercourse with Hill. After it was over, Kotzwara was dead. His is most likely the first recorded death from erotic asphyxiation.^{[3][1]
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frantisek_Kotzwara}

You Little Bastards!

Lung flukes are parasites that live in the lungs. An example of a lung fluke is paragonimus westermani.

Paragonimiasis is a disease caused by parasites called flukes, most commonly Paragonimus westermani. There are other Paragonimus species that can cause disease in humans. The major forms of disease are pulmonary (lung) and extrapulmonary (outside of the lung, such as in the abdomen or brain).

Lung fluke infection can be a serious illness in humans, but it is not transmitted from person-to-person. Symptoms of lung fluke infection can include cough, difficulty breathing, diarrhea, abdominal pain, fever and hives. The parasite, Paragonimus, can migrate from the lungs to other organs, and infection can last for years. Medication is available to treat the infection.

When Paragonimus eggs hatch in fresh water, the miracidium enters different snails and develops into cercaria, which infect freshwater crabs and crayfish, where they form cysts in gills and muscles. When freshwater crabs are eaten raw, the parasite penetrates the gut wall, migrates through the abdominal cavity and passes the diaphragm, where it develops into adult worms. The classical symptoms of a fully developed infection is bloody sputum in which Paragonimus eggs can be demonstrated, and Paragonimus is, therefore, an important differential diagnosis to tuberculosis. In the migratory phase, elevated eosinophils and IgE are common.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung_fluke

All of these things, and there are still those who advocate a return to primitivism. Not that it matters. Not that it can be any other way. Man is not "with" machine. Man is "of" machine.

Why we fight? Why do we? Really?

Christopher Currie (1985 – 19 August 2005) was a New Zealander, who while driving a car along the Southern Motorway in Auckland, was struck by an 8 kg block of concrete dropped from the Princess Street overbridge in Otahuhu. Ngatai Rewiti[1], who was 14-year-old at the time of the incident was found not guilty of Currie's murder, but guilty of manslaughter on 6 July 2006.[2] Rewiti was sentenced to four years in prison at a hearing on 6 September.[3]

The block went through the windscreen of his car, glancing his chin and then striking Currie in the chest. This fractured his sternum, which severed his heart's main artery and instantly killed him. The car then travelled another 120 metres down the motorway before striking a pole, causing minor injuries to the other three occupants of the car. Shortly afterwards the youth was arrested and charged with murder and endangering transport and appeared in the Manukau Youth Court on 23 August.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Currie

And so, he entered the massive crypt of those who died for no reason save human stupidity. The system is upside down. Death without reason or planning is much worse than a motive-driven pre-concieved murder.

Aspire

"What good men most biologists are, the tenors of the scientific world-temperamental, moody, lecherous, loud-laughing, and healthy. Your true biologist will sing you a song as loud and off-key as will a blacksmith, for he knows that morals are too often diagnostic of prostatitis and stomach ulcers. Sometimes he may proliferate a little too much in all directions, but he is as easy to kill as any other organism, and meanwhile he is very good company, and at least he does not confuse a low hormone productivity with moral ethics."
-http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck

The Death Knell of Creative Writing Classes

"Let the writer take up surgery or bricklaying if he is interested in technique. There is no mechanical way to get the writing done, no shortcut. The young writer would be a fool to follow a theory. Teach yourself by your own mistakes; people learn only by error. The good artist believes that nobody is good enough to give him advice. He has supreme vanity. No matter how much he admires the old writer, he wants to beat him."
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Faulkner

With Everything to Play For

For every Southern boy fourteen years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it's still not yet two o'clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it's all in the balance, it hasn't happened yet, it hasn't even begun yet, it not only hasn't begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armistead and Wilcox look grave yet it's going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn't need even a fourteen-year-old boy to think This time. Maybe this time with all this much to lose than all this much to gain: Pennsylvania, Maryland, the world, the golden dome of Washington itself to crown with desperate and unbelievable victory the desperate gamble, the cast made two years ago.
— William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust.

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickett%27s_Charge