rantlust

Posted by tafkap on December 12th 2008 in Language
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Dear rantlust, polyglot that you are:

Heard on A way with words. Supposedly, people in New Orleans say ‘Get down from the car’ as opposed to ‘Get out of the car’; the former being a ‘calque’ from French. I can see why using ‘down’ in this context can be amusing to a native English speaker, but that was not my initial reaction. That is perhaps because in Malayalam too, you would say ‘Get down from the car’.

I think it’s the same in Hindi. Gaadi se neeche utheriye, though is it correct to drop the neeche (down) altogether?

How about other languages, rantlust?

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Posted by papi on December 11th 2008 in Art, Music, youtube
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A lovely little video from Andy Scott.

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Posted by anupcs on December 11th 2008 in Celebrity, Movies
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Next year’s Golden Globe awards promises to be a superstar studded event (hopefully a strike like this year won’t reduce the show to a press conference) after looking at the nominations, announced today. As usual, most of the movies nominated are the ones released in the last 3 months of the year (I really hate this practice). But some of the gems from early on did make it (especially in the comedy category). I haven’t seen some of the new movies but among the nominations I really like, are the ones for “Tropic Thunder” (if only the Academy Award people will shed their inhibitions about nominating comedic pictures), Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” (with the Indian music superstar A.R. Rahman winning a nod as well) and of course the incomparable performance of the late Heath Ledger in “Batman: The Dark Knight.”

The superstars that are nominated are (in no particular order):

• Brad Pitt (In the yet to be released “The curious case of Benjamin Button”)
• Tom Cruise (for his hilarious foul-mouthed turn in “Tropic Thunder”)
• Leo DiCaprio (for the yet to be released “Revolutionary Road”)
• Angelina Jolie (for Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling”)
• Sean Penn (for “Milk”)
• Bruce Springsteen (for the song for “The Wrestler”)

Some of the other familiar faces in award shows continue their uncanny ability to attract the voters and this year we see the return of uber-nominees Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet (nominated twice this year), Kristin Scott Thomas, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Dustin Hoffman.

I am also pleased to see two comeback kids getting nominated: Robert Downey Jr. (for his extremely funny albeit controversial role in “Tropic Thunder”) and Mickey “The Voice” Rourke (for the critically acclaimed “The Wrestler”). I am a bit surprised to see no sign of my beloved Cate Blanchett (for “…Benjamin Button”) though.

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Posted by papi on December 10th 2008 in Food & Wine
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I’m preaching to the choir, of course, but there’s some good info here even for the initiated.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/05/travel

Cheers!

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Posted by renéejo on December 10th 2008 in Europe, Sex, Society
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Meanwhile in other news, in my backyard, a fight is brewing over the recent efforts by the Amsterdam city government to reduce the number of brothels and ‘coffee shops’ in the red light district. The city leaders rationalise this by saying that this move will help reduce organised crime. One of them also soothes the nerves by saying: “We can still have sex and drugs, but in a way that shows the city is in control.”

The various sections of society that’ll be severely affected by this ‘cleanup’ plan to fight back vigorously. Maybe it’s time for all the ‘lusters’ lurking here to rant about this as well.

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Posted by riyer on December 10th 2008 in Auto, Humor, Rants, USA
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Posted by riyer on December 08th 2008 in Government, Journalism, Politics, Rants, USA
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ProPublica, the not for profit investigative journalism organization, has an interesting presentation of the Bush administration by the numbers
Big ups to the Bush administration for Aids relief. If this President has any positive things said about him after his departure, it will probably be his emergency plan for aids relief.
Unfortunately the rest of the rest of the numbers are dismal

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Posted by riyer on December 08th 2008 in Developing Nations, Disasters, Government, India, USA
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The Bush administration is about to acknowledge that the $10bln it has spent in aid to Pakistan since 9/11 has been “wasted”. This aid was specifically meant to help the US fight terrorism on the Afghanistan border. The report will further state that Pakistan has used all of that money to “build up its army against India” instead of fighting the Taliban and the terrorists on the Afghan border. Of all the mismanaged projects that is the hallmark of the Bush presidency, this has perhaps the gravest impact in terms of global security. Ridiculous as this may sound, it can be argued that the Bush administration has indirectly (if inadvertently) funded the Mumbai attacks.

After all, a part of the Pakistan Military strategy to build its war machine against India is to fund organizations like the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) - that is critical for Pakistan to keep the insurgency in Pakistan occupied Kashmir - PoK, going. President Asif Ali Zardari’s recent editorial not withstanding, it is well documented that the LeT is actively supported by the Pakistan military and most notably the ISI. It is well known that the LeT actively recruits in the PoK. The chief of the LeT, Hafiz Saeed, in a speech in Karachi, said “There can’t be any peace while India remains intact. Cut them, cut them — cut them so much that they kneel before you and ask for mercy.” So - funding for the Pakistani military has indirectly supported the LeT operations which has funded the Mumbai attacks.

Most responsible parents will tell you that they supervise what their kids spend their $20 allowance on. How come the Bush administration doesn’t bother to watch over $10bln in aid money. Let us hope the Obama administration does a better job managing our tax dollars and global security.

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