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1. Sheesh, I've been getting a LOT of fake "Your eBay/PayPal account has been suspended!" e-mails as of late. The scammers (or their computers, anyway) must be working overtime. I've been dutifully forwarding all of them to the authorities, but I have to wonder whether they ever actually do anything about the frauds.
2. Monday was my brother's birthday.
3. Today is Hitler's birthday. Not a cause for celebration, obviously, but a date I always remember.
4. On Monday, I was listening to Neko Case's "Furnace Room Lullaby" (the song, which is on the album of the same name), and I came up with the idea that it might be based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Telltale Heart." Apparently I'm not the only one to come up with that idea. Of course, it could just be a case similar to the one where someone saw similarities between Don Giovanni and They Might Be Giants' "The Statue Got Me High." John Linnell once joked, "This song was based on the life of Don Giovanni, which I didn't know when I wrote this song."
5. While perusing the Web recently, I came across this, which prompted me to do some searching for more information on Anatoly Fomenko. He's a Russian professor of mathematics who thinks that all of history was misrepresented, and parts of it were accidentally copied over twice or more, resulting in everyone thinking the period of recorded human history is much longer than it actually is. Under Fomenko's view of history, Jesus walked the Earth in the eleventh century, there were no Dark Ages, and ancient Jerusalem and Troy were both actually Constantinople. The main "evidence" for his idea seems to be a series of parallels between the lengths of reigns of different kings, in events in the lives of these kings and other historical figures, and in names. As some examples of the latter, he links the words "Grace" (as in "Year of Our Grace") and "Greece," as well as "Cairo" to the Welsh "Cair." This kind of messing around with words is fun (I once wondered whether there was a connection between "Christ" and "Krishna," and I still think this might be a possibility), but, really, parallels can be drawn between just about anything. I've seen it suggested (here, for instance) that Fomenko's view of history is an example of Russian nationalism, since it gives his country a more prominent role in history. I also can't help wondering if it might be some kind hoax-with-a-message, probably somewhere along the lines of "Can we ever really KNOW the truth about history?" Regardless, Fomenko's supporters include chess champion Garry Kasparov. (No wonder he lost to a computer! :P) In case anyone cares (and I'm sure they don't), there's more information on Fomenko's ideas here, and an article he wrote here (and no, I haven't actually read that whole article).
5. ( Here's a quiz result )
2. Monday was my brother's birthday.
3. Today is Hitler's birthday. Not a cause for celebration, obviously, but a date I always remember.
4. On Monday, I was listening to Neko Case's "Furnace Room Lullaby" (the song, which is on the album of the same name), and I came up with the idea that it might be based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Telltale Heart." Apparently I'm not the only one to come up with that idea. Of course, it could just be a case similar to the one where someone saw similarities between Don Giovanni and They Might Be Giants' "The Statue Got Me High." John Linnell once joked, "This song was based on the life of Don Giovanni, which I didn't know when I wrote this song."
5. While perusing the Web recently, I came across this, which prompted me to do some searching for more information on Anatoly Fomenko. He's a Russian professor of mathematics who thinks that all of history was misrepresented, and parts of it were accidentally copied over twice or more, resulting in everyone thinking the period of recorded human history is much longer than it actually is. Under Fomenko's view of history, Jesus walked the Earth in the eleventh century, there were no Dark Ages, and ancient Jerusalem and Troy were both actually Constantinople. The main "evidence" for his idea seems to be a series of parallels between the lengths of reigns of different kings, in events in the lives of these kings and other historical figures, and in names. As some examples of the latter, he links the words "Grace" (as in "Year of Our Grace") and "Greece," as well as "Cairo" to the Welsh "Cair." This kind of messing around with words is fun (I once wondered whether there was a connection between "Christ" and "Krishna," and I still think this might be a possibility), but, really, parallels can be drawn between just about anything. I've seen it suggested (here, for instance) that Fomenko's view of history is an example of Russian nationalism, since it gives his country a more prominent role in history. I also can't help wondering if it might be some kind hoax-with-a-message, probably somewhere along the lines of "Can we ever really KNOW the truth about history?" Regardless, Fomenko's supporters include chess champion Garry Kasparov. (No wonder he lost to a computer! :P) In case anyone cares (and I'm sure they don't), there's more information on Fomenko's ideas here, and an article he wrote here (and no, I haven't actually read that whole article).
5. ( Here's a quiz result )
